General Mills: People Will Always Eat Cheerios

My 5 year old loves the charts and can recognize trends.  The beauties are not hard to spot. He is a permabull too which I am thankful for and seems about right for his age.

He’s most interested in the things he gets like Disney, Cocoa and Orange Juice Futures and International Speedway Corporation.

Perhaps when he approaches adolescence and rebels he will hate markets but for now he’s into it and gets that we can buy and sell a part of the company that owns Marvel superheros ($DIS) and that there is a chocolate market ($CC_F) and that the price people are willing to pay for it fluctuates.

A few months back, he asked me where they make Cheerios.  We began talking about the General Mills factory in Buffalo, NY and I researched it a bit – quite an operation.

“Dad,” he said, “people will always eat Cheerio’s,” which I thought was hilarious and true.

We took a look at a long term chart of General Mills and needless to say, the trend is pretty clear to both of us.

While Cheerio’s is only one product in a huge set, $GIS steadily grows revenues, throws off cash and pays a healthy dividend which trends similarly to the stock price.

General Mills Dividend Chart by YCharts

I’ve begun accumulating $GIS in my children’s accounts and plan to reinvest dividends over time. I think its a good play for the kids with a long time horizon.

He’s uber bullish $ISCA as well but we will just watch that one for now.