General Mills Gains On Upbeat Q4 Results, Increased Dividend

(RTTNews) - Shares of General Mills, Inc. (GIS) are up more than 4% Wednesday morning after reporting upbeat fourth-quarter results.

Net earnings in the fourth quarter were up 97 percent to $823 million and EPS was up 98 percent to $1.35, driven primarily by higher operating profit and lower number of shares outstanding.

Excluding one-times, earnings of $1.12 per share beat the average estimate of 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters of $1.01 per share.

Net sales for the quarter increased 8 percent to $4.891 billion. The consensus estimate stood at $4.8 billion.

Looking forward, the company expects adjusted EPS to range between flat and up 3 percent compared with $3.94 earned in fiscal 2022, and organic net sales are expected to increase 4 to 5 percent for the full year.

Analysts expect earnings of $3.96 per share on revenue of $19.11 billion for the year.

Additionally. the company's Board has increased its quarterly dividend 6% to $0.54 per share, payable on August 1, to shareholders of record July 8.

GIS, currently at $73.69, touched a new high of $74.25 this morning.