Stock price when the opinion was issued
At 13X forward earnings for a staples company and with a long-term outlook, we think an investor will do fine with General Mills (GIS). However, there is not much growth at the business currently and we think an investor can wait a bit for some better positive momentum before getting too serious with with a name like this.
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There has been food inflation in the environment for some time. This is a company, along with a great many other consumer packaged good companies, that struggles for growth. If they can eke out low single digit growth in many, many of their categories, it is a win for them. As an owner of the stock, you have to be very, very careful, because a lot of these companies have been labelled as stable and good dividend producers, but have been bid up, and you are paying 16, 17 and sometimes 20 times earnings for a company that is growing at 2%, 3% or 5%, a huge risk. He would stay away from the sector.