Packaged foods company General Mills (NYSE: GIS) reported Q4 CY2025 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, but sales fell by 7.2% year on year to $4.86 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.10 per share was 7.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy General Mills? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free for active Edge members.

Company Overview

Best known for its portfolio of powerhouse breakfast cereal brands, General Mills (NYSE: GIS) is a packaged foods company that has also made a mark in cereals, baking products, and snacks.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years.

With $18.78 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, General Mills is larger than most consumer staples companies and benefits from economies of scale, enabling it to gain more leverage on its fixed costs than smaller competitors. Its size also gives it negotiating leverage with distributors, allowing its products to reach more shelves. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because there are only a finite number of major retail partners, placing a ceiling on its growth. To expand meaningfully, General Mills likely needs to tweak its prices, innovate with new products, or enter new markets.

As you can see below, General Mills’s demand was weak over the last three years. Its sales fell by 1% annually as consumers bought less of its products.

This quarter, General Mills’s revenue fell by 7.2% year on year to $4.86 billion but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 1.9%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to remain flat over the next 12 months. This projection doesn't excite us and indicates its newer products will not accelerate its top-line performance yet.

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Volume Growth

Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (the number of units sold). While both are important, volume is the lifeblood of a successful staples business as there’s a ceiling to what consumers will pay for everyday goods; they can always trade down to non-branded products if the branded versions are too expensive.

To analyze whether General Mills generated its growth (or lack thereof) from changes in price or volume, we can compare its volume growth to its organic revenue growth, which excludes non-fundamental impacts on company financials like mergers and currency fluctuations.

Over the last two years, General Mills’s average quarterly volumes have shrunk by 3%. This isn’t ideal for a consumer staples company, where demand is typically stable. In the context of its 2.4% average organic sales declines, we can see that most of the company’s losses have come from fewer customers purchasing its products.

In General Mills’s Q4 2026, sales volumes dropped 9% year on year. This result represents a further deceleration from its historical levels, showing the business is struggling to move its products.

Key Takeaways from General Mills’s Q4 Results

It was encouraging to see General Mills beat analysts’ organic revenue expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its EBITDA missed. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded up 1.9% to $47.93 immediately after reporting.

So should you invest in General Mills right now? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free for active Edge members.