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GIS, General Mills Inc.

Food Products consumer brand Serial acquirer

We are a leading global manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods with more than 100 brands in 100 countries across six continents.

We offer a variety of human and pet food products that provide great taste, nutrition, convenience, and value for consumers around the world.

Our primary customers are grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

GIS · General Mills Inc.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026

$18.4B

−5.4% YoY · 0% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $18.4B 5-yr avg $19.4B

Gross margin 34% 5-yr avg 34%

Operating margin 4.8% 5-yr avg 14.9%

ROIC 2% 5-yr avg 11%

Owner-earnings margin 9% 5-yr avg 12%

Free cash flow margin 9% 5-yr avg 12%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is led by Snacks (22%) and Cereal (17%), with 6 more lines behind.
Situation: Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 69% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 4 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 35% and operating margin about 17% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −24 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has sat near the cost of capital (median 12%). By owner earnings: roughly 13% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently, and customers and suppliers fund the business through negative working capital. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 7 lines, the largest Snacks at 22%.

Revenue by product line, FY2026

Snacks22%$4.1B
Cereal17%$3.1B
Convenient meals16%$2.9B
Pet15%$2.8B
Dough13%$2.4B
Baking mixes and ingredients10%$1.9B
Other7%$1.2B

By geographyUnited States80%International20%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMMay 2026
											Income statement
$15.6B	$15.7B	$16.9B	$17.6B	$18.1B	$19.0B	$20.1B	$19.9B	$19.5B	$18.4B	$18.4B	RevenueRevenue
36%	35%	34%	35%	36%	34%	33%	35%	35%	34%	34%	Gross marginGross mgn
18%	18%	17%	18%	17%	17%	17%	16%	18%	18%	18%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$2.5B	$2.4B	$2.5B	$3.0B	$3.1B	$3.5B	$3.4B	$3.4B	$3.3B	$886M	$886M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
16.0%	15.4%	14.9%	16.8%	17.3%	18.3%	17.1%	17.3%	17.0%	4.8%	4.8%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$1.7B	$2.1B	$1.8B	$2.2B	$2.3B	$2.7B	$2.6B	$2.5B	$2.3B	($88M)	($88M)	Net incomeNet inc.
28%	3%	17%	18%	21%	18%	19%	19%	20%	—	—	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$2.4B	$2.8B	$2.8B	$3.7B	$3.0B	$3.3B	$2.8B	$3.3B	$2.9B	$2.2B	$2.2B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$604M	$619M	$620M	$595M	$601M	$570M	$547M	$553M	$539M	$555M	$555M	DepreciationDeprec.
$58M	$14M	$349M	$805M	($48M)	($60M)	($474M)	$158M	($8M)	$1.6B	$1.6B	Working capital & otherWC & other
$684M	$623M	$538M	$461M	$531M	$569M	$690M	$774M	$625M	$540M	$540M	CapexCapex
4.4%	4.0%	3.2%	2.6%	2.9%	3.0%	3.4%	3.9%	3.2%	2.9%	2.9%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$1.7B	$2.2B	$2.3B	$3.2B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.2B	$2.7B	$2.3B	$1.6B	$1.6B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
11.1%	14.1%	13.5%	18.2%	13.5%	14.5%	11.1%	13.8%	11.8%	8.8%	8.8%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$1.7B	$2.2B	$2.3B	$3.2B	$2.5B	$2.7B	$2.1B	$2.5B	$2.3B	$1.6B	$1.6B	Free cash flowFCF
11.1%	14.1%	13.5%	18.2%	13.5%	14.5%	10.4%	12.7%	11.8%	8.8%	8.8%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0	$8.0B	$0	$0	$0	$1.2B	$252M	$452M	$1.4B	$0	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.4B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.3B	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$1.7B	$602M	$1M	$3M	$301M	$877M	$1.4B	$2.0B	$1.2B	$500M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
15%	12%	11%	12%	12%	14%	13%	13%	11%	2%	2%	ROICROIC
38%	35%	25%	27%	25%	26%	25%	27%	25%	-1%	-1%	Return on equityROE
12%	16%	8%	12%	12%	14%	12%	12%	10%	−19%	−19%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$766M	$399M	$450M	$1.7B	$1.5B	$569M	$586M	$418M	$364M	$454M	$454M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$1.4B	$1.7B	$1.7B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.7B	$1.7B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$1.6B	$1.6B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$1.5B	$1.6B	$1.6B	$1.4B	$1.8B	$1.9B	$2.2B	$1.9B	$1.9B	$1.9B	$1.9B	InventoryInvent.
$2.1B	$2.7B	$2.9B	$3.2B	$3.7B	$4.0B	$4.2B	$4.0B	$4.0B	$3.7B	$3.7B	Accounts payablePayables
$794M	$580M	$385M	($206M)	($195M)	($423M)	($339M)	($393M)	($303M)	($165M)	($165M)	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$4.1B	$4.1B	$4.2B	$5.1B	$5.8B	$5.1B	$5.2B	$4.6B	$5.3B	$4.6B	$4.6B	Current assetsCur. assets
$5.3B	$7.3B	$7.1B	$7.5B	$8.3B	$8.0B	$7.5B	$7.0B	$7.9B	$6.8B	$6.8B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
0.8×	0.6×	0.6×	0.7×	0.7×	0.6×	0.7×	0.7×	0.7×	0.7×	0.7×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$8.7B	$14.1B	$14.0B	$13.9B	$14.1B	$14.4B	$14.5B	$14.8B	$15.6B	$14.1B	$14.1B	GoodwillGoodwill
$21.8B	$30.6B	$30.1B	$30.8B	$31.8B	$31.1B	$31.5B	$31.5B	$33.1B	$30.0B	$30.0B	Total assetsAssets
$8.2B	$14.3B	$13.0B	$13.3B	$12.3B	$10.8B	$11.7B	$12.9B	$14.2B	$13.5B	$13.5B	Total debtDebt
$7.5B	$13.9B	$12.6B	$11.6B	$10.7B	$10.2B	$11.1B	$12.5B	$13.8B	$13.0B	$13.0B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
8.4×	6.5×	4.8×	6.3×	7.5×	9.2×	9.0×	7.2×	6.3×	—	1.7×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$4.3B	$6.1B	$7.1B	$8.1B	$9.5B	$10.5B	$10.4B	$9.4B	$9.2B	$7.4B	$7.4B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.6%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$117M	—	$1.5B	$1.5B	Goodwill written downGW imp.
											Per share
598M	586M	605M	613M	619M	613M	601M	580M	558M	538M	538M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$26.12	$26.87	$27.86	$28.74	$29.28	$31.00	$33.42	$34.27	$34.95	$34.27	$34.27	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.77	$3.64	$2.90	$3.56	$3.78	$4.42	$4.31	$4.31	$4.12	$-0.16	$-0.16	EPS (diluted)EPS
$2.89	$3.79	$3.75	$5.24	$3.96	$4.48	$3.71	$4.75	$4.11	$3.02	$3.02	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$2.89	$3.79	$3.75	$5.24	$3.96	$4.48	$3.47	$4.36	$4.11	$3.02	$3.02	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.90	$1.95	$1.95	$1.95	$2.01	$2.03	$2.14	$2.35	$2.40	$2.45	$2.45	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$1.14	$1.06	$0.89	$0.75	$0.86	$0.93	$1.15	$1.34	$1.12	$1.00	$1.00	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$7.24	$10.49	$11.65	$13.14	$15.30	$17.21	$17.38	$16.22	$16.50	$13.70	$13.70	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+3.1%/yr	+3.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+0.5%/yr	−5.3%/yr
Dividends / share	+2.9%/yr	+4.0%/yr
Capital spending / share	−1.4%/yr	+3.2%/yr
Book value / share	+7.4%/yr	−2.2%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

Revenue-5.4%
“Net sales in fiscal 2026 decreased 5 percent compared to fiscal 2025, driven by a decrease in contributions from volume growth, partially offset by favorable net price realization and mix and favorable foreign currency exchange impacts, and includes the net impact of the Divestitures and Acquisition.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
International+0.4%
“International net sales increased 9 percent in fiscal 2026 compared to fiscal 2025, driven by favorable foreign currency exchange impacts, an increase in contributions from volume growth, and favorable net price realization and mix.”
✓ direction matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

538Mpeak FY2021

ROIC

2%low FY2026

Gross margin

34%low FY2023

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

8.0×peak FY2026

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$1.6Bowner earningsvs.($88M)net incomelow FY2026

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2022–FY2026cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2026 the business turned a $88M loss into $1.6B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

	FY2026	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022
Reported net income	($88M)	$2.3B	$2.5B	$2.6B	$2.7B
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$555M	+$539M	+$553M	+$547M	+$570M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$79M	+$92M	+$95M	+$112M	+$99M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$1.6B	−$8M	+$158M	−$474M	−$60M
Cash from operations	$2.2B	$2.9B	$3.3B	$2.8B	$3.3B
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$540M	−$625M	−$553M	−$547M	−$569M
Owner earnings	$1.6B	$2.3B	$2.7B	$2.2B	$2.7B
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	—	−$221M	−$143M	—
Free cash flow	$1.6B	$2.3B	$2.5B	$2.1B	$2.7B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	9%	12%	14%	11%	14%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $79M), owner earnings is nearer $1.5B.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 1.7×

Thin

Operating income $886M ÷ interest expense $524M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $13.0B · 14.7× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $454M − debt $13.5B

What this means
Netting $454M of cash and short-term investments against $13.5B of debt leaves $13.0B owed, about 14.7× a year's operating profit (15.2× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? -21d

Negative, funded by others

DSO 33 + DIO 57 − DPO 111 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 12%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median, range 2%–15%; 2% latest = NOPAT $443M ÷ invested capital $20.4B

Industry peers: median 13%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 10 years (it ran 2% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 13%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 9%–18%; latest $1.6B = operating cash $2.2B − maintenance capex $540M

Industry peers: median 7%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 9% of revenue this year, a 13% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $79M of SBC) leaves $1.5B.
Are earnings backed by cash? $2.2B

Loss, but cash-generative

Net income ($88M) · cash from operations $2.2B

In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.

What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 112%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $1.8B ÷ Owner Earnings $1.6B

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $1.6B of Owner Earnings, $1.8B (112%) went back to shareholders, $1.3B dividends, $500M buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Net of $79M stock comp, the real buyback was about $421M. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
Investing or harvesting? 0.97×

Maintaining

Capex $540M ÷ depreciation $555M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $18.4B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.68×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $13.5B vs ($2.2B) WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Near

A profit every year (10-yr record) · 1 loss year

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Miss

Earnings +33% over the record · −15%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $2.94/share (latest year $-0.16), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $13.81/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 9 of 10

What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 15% → 13% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The filing claims pricing power in its strongest form — price raised, volume held — yet the margin here has not widened to match. The claim leads the record; weigh them together.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin slipped — about 15% early to 13% lately, median 17% — competition or costs are biting in.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth −0%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings shrank about 0% a year over the record.
Worst year 2026 · 4.8% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count −1.2%/yr

What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.
How management talks about it Owner’s terms

What this means
Returns have thinned, but the filing discusses it in an owner’s vocabulary rather than selling past it — candor about a hard stretch counts for more than an adjective.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, May 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$4.6B

Cash & short-term investments$454M
Receivables$1.6B
Inventory$1.9B
Other current assets$600M

Current liabilities$6.8B

Debt due within a year$1.1B
Accounts payable$3.7B
Other current liabilities$2.0B

Current ratio0.68×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.40×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.07×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($2.2B)the cushion left after near-term bills

Its current ratio is below 1, which usually reads as strain; here it is likely structural strength. This business collects from customers before it pays suppliers (a negative cash-conversion cycle), so the balance sheet is funded by that float, the way Costco's and Amazon's are. The low ratio can be the edge, not the risk; the cash-conversion cycle and the debt due above say which.

Debt due this year vs. cash$1.1B due · $454M cash cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the May 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+1.2%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters0.7× → 0.7×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($13.5B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($18.0B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$13.9B$402M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $29.2B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$6.0B · 21%
Dividends$12.4B · 43%
Buybacks$8.5B · 29%
Retained (debt / cash)$2.2B · 7%

Returned to owners$21.0B
89% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $12.4B as dividends and $8.5B as buybacks.
Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $5.2B and cash and short-term investments fell $312M.
Average price paid for buybacks$65.32
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 131M shares were bought for $8.5B, about $65.32 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $34.00 (2020) to $77.98 (2023); its heaviest year, 2024, paid $68.58 ($2.0B).
Net change in share count−10.1%
The diluted count fell from 598M to 538M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$2.45/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 3% a year. It was never cut over the span.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$20.8B69% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth

Cash spent acquiring$11.4Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $6.0B of capital spent building

$1.6B written down across 2 years (2024, 2026): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Jeffrey L. Harmening	$15.6M	$12.9M	$2.5B
2022	Jeffrey L. Harmening	$12.3M	$27.7M	$2.7B
2023	Jeffrey L. Harmening	$16.4M	$33.1M	$2.2B
2024	Jeffrey L. Harmening	$16.1M	−$2.7M	$2.7B
2025	Jeffrey L. Harmening	$12.5M	−$751k	$2.3B

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2025 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$79M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 9% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why General Mills Inc. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2017–2026.

2 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereIs it less profitable than it was?11.5% vs 12.9%
The owner-earnings margin averaged 12.9% early in the record and 11.5% across the last three years, and the latest year has not recovered. Ask the filing whether that is a structural drift or a cyclical trough — price, mix, cost, or a competitor — and whether it is permanent.
Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$8.2B → $13.5B
Debt rose from $8.2B to $13.5B while owner earnings went from about $2.1B to $2.2B — about 4.0 years of owner earnings in debt then, about 6.1 now: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.

And these came back clean

Did the share count rise anyway?
Did reported profit become cash?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2026

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, Income taxes as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Food Products

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
KHCThe Kraft Heinz Company	$24.9B	34%	12.8%	3%	11%
PPCPilgrim's Pride Corporation	$18.5B	10%	6.4%	13%	3%
GISGeneral Mills Inc.	$18.4B	35%	16.9%	12%	13%
KDPKeurig Dr Pepper Inc.	$16.6B	55%	21.3%	5%	18%
SFDSmithfield Foods Inc.	$15.5B	13%	7.9%	13%	4%
KKellanova	$12.7B	35%	11.5%	13%	7%
POSTPost Holdings	$8.2B	29%	9.8%	5%	7%
INGRIngredion	$7.2B	22%	11.5%	13%	9%
Group median	—	32%	11.5%	12%	8%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what General Mills Inc. has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, General Mills Inc. earns about $2.5B on its 13.5% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 8.8% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($2.5B) Net of stock comp (−$79M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26−6%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’26−0%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $1.6B on 534M shares outstanding, per the 10-K cover, as of 2026-06-15; net debt $13.0B. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh GIS against another business →

The owners of GIS: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "General Mills Inc. (GIS), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/GIS, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← GILD its page in the Manual GKOS →

Industry order: ← FRPT the Food Products chapter HRL →