There are no safe havens in the stock market. Every stock carries risk. But some less than others. This column features stocks that have shown one or more of the following characteristics: less volatility, better earnings, larger market caps, safe and increasing dividends. In these times of turmoil, our goal is to show readers better opportunities for investing with fewer risks.

July 24, 2008 - General Mills Inc. (GIS-NYSE) manufactures and markets branded and packaged consumer foods primarily in the United States and Canada. The company also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. Its products include ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, ready-to-serve soup, dry dinners, shelf stable and frozen vegetables, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, and microwave popcorn.

Look in a kitchen cabinet, and you'll find a General Mills product. Its ready-to-eat cereals have been starting kids' days for decades, favorites like Wheaties, Cheerios, Total, Chex. For adults, there's Betty Crocker Bisquick, Hamburger Helper, Yoplait and Colombo. Back in 2001, it added Pillsbury to its product mix. It used to own restaurants but sold those in 1995.

Even with high price inflation for its raw materials (corn in particular), GIS is doing very nicely. Operating earnings in the quarter that ended in February were up 18% over the same quarter last year. Volume growth helped the boost along with higher prices to customers. Revenues were up 12% over last year's quarter. That's the first time in about 7 years sales have gone up double digits .

Don't expect that kind of growth for sales or profits to continue. Commodity costs are up, way up. A more normal sales growth of 7% annually for the next 5 years (7.5% a year, on average, over the last 5 years) is most likely according to analysts. There will be higher marketing costs as well as a bigger tax bite coming from a higher tax rate that will eat into profits. Earnings grew an average of 8.5% a year over the last 5 years. Look for more of the same over the next 5. This year should be $3.84, up from $3.52 last year. Next year, analysts expect $4.20.

One way the company is beating the higher cost of raw materials: they put less of the product (say cereal) in the same size box. The serving portions are smaller while the price stays the same. It's one way to "increase" prices without increasing prices. So far, the customers continue to buy. In fact, volume is growing.

The stock price over the last 6 years resembles a flat line with an upward bias. In other words, it hasn't gone up or down much in all that time. Just steady-as-she-goes growth in earnings and sales. It's been enough to sustain the stock through some of the worst markets in memory.

Other numbers: Price Earnings Ratio of 17. Price to Sales is 1.6. Price to Book is 3.52. Fiscal year ends May 25. Profit margin is 9.48% with operating margin at 16.61%. Return on Equity is an extraordinary 22.45%. The dividend is 40 cents a share per quarter for a yield of 2.5%.

Look into General Mills if solid, stable growth sounds comforting in these tumultous times. While there isn't anything on the horizon that will make this stock move up dramatically, the constant, dependable earnings and revenue growth is a rare item on Wall Street.

- Company Web site: www.generalmills.com

- Ted Allrich