GENERAL MILLS INC. $38(New York symbol GIS, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 647.3 million; Market cap: $24.6 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.generalmills.com) reported that its sales in the fiscal year ended May 27, 2012 rose 11.9%, to $16.7 billion from $14.9 billion in 2011. That’s mainly due to last year’s purchase of 51% of the company that makes Yoplait yogurt. General Mills also raised the selling prices of its cereals, soups and other products.
Earnings in fiscal 2012 fell 12.8%, to $1.6 billion, or $2.35 a share. It earned $1.8 billion, or $2.70 a share, in fiscal 2011. If you exclude the costs to integrate Yoplait and other unusual items, earnings per share would have risen by 3.2%, to $2.56 from $2.48.
Like Tupperware (see left), General Mills is targeting overseas markets for growth; international operations now account for 25% of its sales and 14% of its earnings. That’s why it recently agreed to pay $990 million for Yoki Alimentos S.A., a Brazilian maker of snack foods and seasonings. The deal should close by the end of 2012.
General Mills now feels that it will earn $2.65 a share in fiscal 2013. The stock trades at a reasonable 14.3 times that forecast. The company also increased its quarterly dividend by 8.2%. The new annual rate of $1.32 a share yields 3.5%.
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Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
The Successful Investor Inc. and its affiliate Successful Investor Wealth Management (referred to hereafter as TSI Network) know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting websites owned by or associated with TSI Network, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
This privacy policy is applicable to all TSI Network Visitors, Clients, Employees, Suppliers, Web sites, Management, and all other interested parties. Any links to or from our site are not covered by this policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every site that you visit.
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We do not collect or disclose personal information, except when it is provided to us voluntarily by the site/store visitor with their consent.
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We are continuously in the process of improving our sites and services. If any new features or policies require a change to this current policy, we will post a clear notice of this change on pages of our site where the privacy policy appears. The principle behind this privacy policy is to collect information with your knowledge and consent.
What personal information do we collect?
The information we receive from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network. TSI Network may collect personal information online for all legal purposes, which include, but are not limited to:
Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way through sign-up forms or ordering forms for publications and services. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our services and features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing your web browsing experience for you, improving our website, and communicating with you.
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We do reserve the right, however, to collect and perform statistical analyses of the internet traffic to our website for our internal use. However, information collected does not allow us to identify any individual, and will not collect any personal information of the visitor. Furthermore, we do not sell, rent or loan to any outside parties the information collected and analyzed.
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Does TSI Network Use the Information It Receives?
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Changes to this Policy
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