General Mills Inc (GIS) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Sep 16, 2026
General Mills Inc (GIS)
A forensic read on General Mills Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-213.6
P / E (ttm)
-1.2%
ROE
$19.0B
Market cap
3.62%
Dividend yield
-5.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
General Mills Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.4%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2022–FY2026 from 12% — below the ~8% cost of capital we hold this sector to. If that gap persists through the cycle, incremental reinvestment reduces rather than creates value per share. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2022–FY2026 ($23.3B to $23.8B, +2%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
$1.6B
FY2024–FY2026
Goodwill impairments.Took $1.6B of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($117M), FY2026 ($1.5B)) — about 34% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.
112% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.8B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 112% of free cash flow, but 84% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash. Counting the $79M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 117%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$18.42B
Revenue Growth YoY-5.4%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+110.7%
Net Margin-0.5%
Free Cash Flow$1.63B
Return on Equity-1.2%
Debt / Equity1.83x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from General Mills Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?