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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — General Mills Inc. shares rallied in early trading Wednesday after the food company posted better-than-expected results and raised its guidance.
The company reported a fiscal third-quarter profit of $446.8 million, or 74 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 83 cents per share.
The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 69 cents per share.
The Minneapolis-based maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods posted revenue of $4.2 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $4.18 billion. Revenue was up 8 percent from last year, and on a constant-currency basis it grew 10 percent. Results include Blue Buffalo Pet Products which was acquired in April 2018.
Looking ahead, General Mills expects its adjusted full-year earnings per share to be flat to up 1 percent from last year's $3.11. Previously it forecast a decline of up to 3 percent.
General Mills were up more than 5 percent in premarket trading. The shares have increased 21 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 13 percent. The stock has fallen roughly 6 percent in the last 12 months.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GIS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GIS
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