General Mills Shares Rise After Dividend Increase, Earnings Beat

General Mills Inc. shares rose 0.8% in Wednesday premarket trading after the company announced a dividend increase and beat earnings expectations. The food company said it had fourth-quarter income of $379.6 million, or 62 cents per share, up from $186.8 million, or 30 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings were 66 cents per share, beating the 60 cents per share FactSet consensus. Revenue for the quarter totaled $3.93 billion, down from $4.30 billion last year, but above the $3.86 billion FactSet consensus. General Mills declared a quarterly dividend of 48 cents per share, a 4% increase from the previous quarterly rate of 46 cents per share, payable Aug. 1, 2016 to shareholders of record July 11, 2016. General Mills expects fiscal 2017 organic net sales ranging from flat to down 2% compared with 2016. The company estimates between 1% and 2% headwind to fiscal 2017 adjusted EPS from currency exchange rates, but that doesn't take fluctuations to the British Pound into account. General Mills shares are up 17.3% for the past year, while the S&P 500 is down 1.1% for the same period.