General Mills (GIS) Tops Q4 EPS by 2c

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) reported Q4 EPS of $0.73, $0.02 better than the analyst estimate of $0.71. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.81 billion versus the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion.

Outlook

"We remain committed to our Consumer First strategy and our focus on driving growth and returns for our shareholders," Harmening said. "Our top priority in fiscal 2018 is to make significant strides toward returning our business to sustainable topline growth. Our plans call for investment in product news and innovation to accelerate growth for businesses where we have positive momentum, and to improve those that are underperforming. We'll also increase investment in capabilities like e-commerce and Strategic Revenue Management, which are critical to future growth. And we'll maintain our cost management discipline, with strong levels of savings from Holistic Margin Management and additional benefits from our other cost-reduction initiatives.

"This cost management discipline has helped us significantly expand our operating margin over the past two years," Harmening continued. "We continue to see opportunities for further margin expansion, including an increase in adjusted operating profit margin in fiscal 2018, but we will moderate the pace of expansion as we invest to restore topline growth. Looking forward, we're focused on delivering a balance of sales growth and margin expansion, along with strong cash conversion and cash returns, to create top-tier returns for our shareholders."

General Mills outlined its key full-year fiscal 2018 targets:

• Organic net sales are expected to decline 1 to 2 percent.
• Constant-currency total segment operating profit is expected to be in a range between flat and up 1 percent.
• Adjusted operating profit margin is expected to be above year-ago levels.
• Constant-currency adjusted diluted EPS is expected to increase 1 to 2 percent from the base of $3.08 earned in fiscal 2017. The company estimates a 1 cent headwind from currency translation on full-year fiscal 2018 adjusted diluted EPS.

Dividend Increase

The General Mills Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.49 per share, payable August 1, 2017, to shareholders of record July 10, 2017. This represents an increase of 2 percent from the previous quarterly rate of $0.48 per share, and marks the thirteenth increase in the quarterly dividend rate in the last ten years.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on General Mills (GIS) click here.

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