GIS vs HRL Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
GIS and HRL are both established consumer staples companies with iconic brand portfolios and long dividend histories, but General Mills is broader with cereal, snacks, and pet food, while Hormel is more concentrated in protein and meat products. Both are classic defensive consumer staples investments with modest growth profiles.
GIS vs HRL compares two classic consumer staples food companies navigating private label pressure and post-inflation volume recovery, with different category focuses and growth drivers.
GIS holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. HRL has delivered stronger 1-year price return (-20.23% vs -34.18%), though GIS has the better forward P/E setup (12.94x vs 13.88x for HRL). GIS leads on both revenue growth (2.20%) and operating margin (19.19%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for HRL (+21.12%) than for GIS (-9.61%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want a broad consumer staples portfolio including cereal, snacks, and pet food
- Value Blue Buffalo pet nutrition as a faster-growth segment within General Mills
- Appreciate consistent dividend income from an iconic multi-category food brand portfolio
- Want consumer staples exposure concentrated in protein and pantry brands (SPAM, Skippy, Planters)
- Value Hormel's Dividend King status with 50+ years of consecutive dividend increases
- See defensive value in protein-focused consumer brands with long household loyalty
| Metric | GIS | HRL |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 26.8 | 26.5 |
| AI ranki | #2437 | #2482 |
| Latest closei | $33.64 | $19.71 |
| 1M returni | -16.07% | -16.87% |
| 6M returni | -7.71% | -14.56% |
| 1Y returni | -34.18% | -20.23% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | GIS | HRL |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $6.81K (-31.9%) started 2025-09-25 | $8.07K (-19.3%) started 2025-09-25 |
| 5Y ago | $7.26K (-27.4%) started 2021-09-27 | $6.03K (-39.7%) started 2021-09-27 |
| 10Y ago | $10.2K (+2.0%) started 2016-09-26 | $8.23K (-17.7%) started 2016-09-26 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | GIS | HRL |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $22.21B | $11.87B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 8.80 | 34.79 |
| Forward P/Ei | 12.94 | 13.88 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 1.38 | 0.95 |
| Analyst targeti | $37.56 | $26.13 |
| Target upsidei | -9.61% | +21.12% |
| Metric | GIS | HRL |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 2.20% | -2.90% |
| Earnings growthi | -14.50% | -5.10% |
| EPS growthi | -14.50% | -5.10% |
| FCF margini | +12.53% | +5.12% |
| Operating margini | 19.19% | 11.06% |
| Profit margini | -0.47% | 2.82% |
| ROIC proxyi | -1.03% | 4.29% |
| Return on equityi | -1.03% | 4.29% |
| Dividend yieldi | 5.87% | 5.42% |
| Payout ratioi | 59.41% | 188.31% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | No increase yet |
| Betai | -0.05 | 0.33 |
| Debt/equityi | 217.63 | 4.24 |
| Current ratioi | 0.68 | 1.88 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.35 | 0.89 |
Over the past year, GIS and HRL have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.44), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | GIS | HRL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -31.94% | -19.25% |
| CAGRi | -31.98% | -19.28% | |
| Volatilityi | 28.24% | 29.19% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -1.39 | -0.74 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -1.84 | -1.03 | |
| Max drawdowni | 36.83% | 25.65% | |
| Current drawdowni | 33.95% | 25.65% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 19.57% | 9.09% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 22.48% | 11.33% | |
| Max daily dropi | 6.99% | 10.25% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 11.38% | 11.63% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -36.24% | -46.27% |
| CAGRi | -8.61% | -11.69% | |
| Volatilityi | 22.33% | 24.83% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.49 | -0.56 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.67 | -0.74 | |
| Max drawdowni | 61.80% | 60.50% | |
| Current drawdowni | 60.06% | 60.50% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 23.61% | 31.68% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 29.92% | 36.03% | |
| Max daily dropi | 7.32% | 13.09% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 11.38% | 13.30% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | -28.55% | -34.84% |
| CAGRi | -3.31% | -4.19% | |
| Volatilityi | 22.67% | 23.58% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.23 | -0.25 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.32 | -0.35 | |
| Max drawdowni | 61.80% | 60.50% | |
| Current drawdowni | 60.06% | 60.50% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 17.37% | 19.85% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 23.38% | 26.30% | |
| Max daily dropi | 11.41% | 13.09% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 19.17% | 13.30% |
| Category | GIS | HRL |
|---|---|---|
| Company | General Mills, Inc. | Hormel Foods Corporation |
| Sector | Consumer Defensive | Consumer Defensive |
| Industry | Packaged Foods | Packaged Foods |
| Core business | General Mills is a global packaged food company with leading brands including Cheerios, Wheaties, Nature Valley, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Yoplait, Blue Buffalo pet food, and Old El Paso, selling across cereal, snacks, baking, yogurt, and pet food categories. | Hormel Foods is a branded food company focused primarily on protein products including SPAM, Skippy peanut butter, Jennie-O turkey, Columbus Craft Meats, Planters nuts, and Dinty Moore stews, along with foodservice protein distribution. |
| Investor focus | Investors track General Mills' organic volume recovery after price inflation years, Blue Buffalo pet food growth, and the balance between pricing and volume in the normalizing consumer environment. | Investors track Hormel's volume recovery in its retail segment, foodservice business performance, and management's ability to navigate turkey market volatility and avian influenza risk in the Jennie-O segment. |
- Broad portfolio of iconic consumer food brands across multiple grocery categories with deep household penetration
- Blue Buffalo is a leading premium pet food brand providing high-growth exposure within the pet nutrition market
- Consistent dividend payment history makes GIS a staple dividend investor holding
- Unique combination of iconic consumer brands (SPAM, Skippy, Planters) with a growing foodservice business
- Dividend King with 50+ consecutive years of annual dividend increases
- Protein-focused portfolio benefits from long-term consumer interest in high-protein diets
- Volume declines following price-led revenue growth have weighed on organic growth consistency
- Cereal category faces secular headwinds from changing breakfast habits and competition from faster-growing breakfast categories
- Private label competition across multiple food categories pressures branded product market share
- Jennie-O turkey segment is sensitive to avian influenza outbreaks that can disrupt supply
- Turkey and pork commodity exposure creates raw material cost variability
- Revenue and volume have been sluggish as the company navigates post-pandemic normalization
Compare more than two at a time
This page is a fixed writeup on GIS and HRL. Our comparison engine is the interactive version: load up to five tickers, switch timeframes, and get the correlation, drawdown, and overlap analysis that a static page can't show.
Add three more names beside GIS and HRL, mixing stocks and ETFs in the same table — useful when the real question is which of a whole peer group to own.
AI score, forward P/E, analyst target upside, operating margin, and revenue growth are scored head-to-head, with a running tally of which ticker leads on how many metrics.
Volatility, Sharpe and Sortino ratios, maximum, current, and average drawdown, Ulcer Index, and worst single-day and single-week drops across every timeframe.
Pairwise daily-return correlation for every combination, so you can see whether two holdings actually diversify each other or just move together.
A scatter plot of forward P/E against return on equity, plus drawdown and 30-day rolling volatility charts, to separate what is cheap from what is merely beaten down.
For ETFs, a top-holdings comparison that exposes hidden overlap between funds. Every comparison exports to CSV for your own spreadsheet work.
Two comparisons a week are free without an account. A 14-day trial removes the limit and adds AI price forecasts, stock rankings, saved watchlists, and the intrinsic value calculator — no credit card required.
Want deeper AI forecasts?
This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.
Full valuation workup with AI Score, Monte Carlo forecast, and bull/bear case — free preview, premium data from $3.99.