General Mills Financial Strip Tease

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) did the financial strip tease this week. They expect to announce year end results on July 1. They have a European investors conference hosted by Deutsche Bank on June 9 which will be webcast. So today they announce that a mere twenty days before the official announcement but seven days after the actual year end they are prepared to share with investors that “Preliminary year-end estimates exceed the company’s prior 2009 EPS guidance by several cents, reflecting good operating performance and a lower fourth-quarter tax rate.”

General Mills is scheduled to appear at the Deutsche Bank Global Consumer and Food Retail Conference in Paris, France on June 9, 2009. The company’s presentation will be webcast, beginning at 12:00 noon Paris time. That webcast can be accessed from the company’s website: www.generalmills.com.

What is several cents? If you walked into the CEO’s office and could only articulate several cents the CEO would not have confidence in you. Why should investors have confidence in several cents?