General Mills Updates 2014 Fiscal Outlook

Friday, March 14th, 2014, General Mills GIS updated its fiscal 2014 outlook. The company changed multiple estimates to reflect changes in currency policy, restructuring, and other exit costs. The company has also announced an eight percent increase in the quarterly dividend. Shares of the company are down $0.98 per share or 1.9 percent to $50.03.

General Mills stated that it continues to expect adjusted diluted earnings per share for the fiscal year ending May 25th, 2014, to be in the range of $2.87 to $2.90 per share.

The company has also said its sales and operating profits for the third quarter ended February 23rd, 2014 would reflect about one percent lower volume, due to negative foreign currency translation effects, and recent food industry trends in developed markets.

General Mills believes that it can deliver double-digit growth in adjusted diluted Earnings Per Share in the fourth quarter of 2014. This would be due to input-cost inflation, the quarterly tax rate, and the average number of outstanding shares each being lower than the prior-year levels.

The company has also said that consistent with General Mills strong operating cash flows, anticipated earnings growth in 2014, and continued growth expected in fiscal 2015, General Mills’s board of directors earlier this week declared an 8 percent increase in the quarterly dividend, payable to May 1st, 2014, to shareholders of record April 10th, 2014.