General Mills 1Q earnings preview

Posted Sep 22nd 2009 5:20PM by Michael Fowlkes
Filed under: International Markets, Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Products and Services, General Mills (GIS), Recession

Minneapolis based General Mills, Inc. (NYSE: GIS) will be reporting its fiscal first quarter results Wednesday morning before the market opens.

The last time that General Mills reported earnings was on July 1 when the company outpaced analyst estimates of 81 cents per share by posting actual earnings of 86 cents for its fiscal fourth quarter. This time analysts are expecting to see the company show earnings of $1.03 per share.

While the recession has hit a lot companies hard, food companies such as General Mills has actually been benefiting from the recession. The main reason is that more and more people are opting to eat at home instead of going out in order to save a little extra money.

A cut back in consumer spending is not the only factor that is giving General Mills a boost. Commodity prices are also working in the company's favor as they are well off their highs they hit last year.

Earlier this month, the company reported that it was expecting to beat analyst estimates for the quarter. The company cited improving margins, falling commodity prices, and growth of its food brands as the major reasons for the increased performance in the period.

Analyst take: Eric Katzman, who is an analyst with Deutsche Bank is bullish on the stock. He rates the stock as a "buy" and believes that the company remains undervalued by the market. In a recent note to investors, he pointed out that General Mills is a leader in several food categories, and has some created strength through several joint ventures, such as the one it has with Nestle.

The stock has been moving strongly higher over since April, but it still down about 14% over the past 52 weeks. Here is a 1 year chart on the stock so you can get a better idea of how it has been trading on Wall Street.