General Mills, Inc. (GIS – Analyst Report) is easily a leading manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores. The company’s core brands like Big G cereals, Betty Crocker and Hamburger Helper dinner mixes, Pillsbury refrigerated dough products, Progresso soups and Yoplait yogurt enjoy leading positions in attractive food categories.

However, much like the rest of the food industry, GIS has been under pressure lately as its U.S. sales and profits have been below expectation due to changing consumer food preferences. To cater to the evolving consumer tastes, General Mills is investing in consumer-focused innovation and marketing and accelerating its natural and organic product portfolio to improve sales.

Due to this, investors are eagerly awaiting the company’s earnings report in order to set the record straight and to give guidance for the company’s outlook.

Investors should note that the consensus estimate for GIS witnessed a mixed movement over the last 60 days. Moreover, GIS has delivered positive earnings surprises in three of the past four quarters making for an average four quarter earnings surprise of 0.95%.

Currently, GIS has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), but that could definitely change following General Mills’ earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: GIS beat on earnings. Our consensus earnings estimate called for EPS of $0.69/share, and the company reported EPS of $$0.79 instead. Investors should note that these figures take out stock option expenses.

Revenues: GIS reported revenues of $4.21 billion. This missed our consensus estimate of 4.23 billion.

Key Stats to Note: In constant currency terms, sales grew 6% helped by the incremental sales from the Annie’s acquisition (Oct 2014), easy comparisons and pricing gains.

Share Price Impact: Inactive in pre-market trading