SpaceX IPO Stumbles While General Mills Offers 6.3% Dividend Yield and Recession Defense

SpaceX's Market Debut Loses Steam as Attention Turns to Defensive Alternatives

Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX), Elon Musk's aerospace giant, made an enormous splash when it went public in June 2026 — but the post-IPO glow has faded quickly. The offering raised roughly $75 billion and shares surged 19% on the first trading day, reaching $193. As of July 17, however, the stock had retreated to around $126, putting it below its IPO price and raising fresh questions about near-term valuation.

The pullback has some investors reassessing whether the initial excitement priced in too much optimism, and turning attention toward more established names with proven track records.

General Mills: 160 Years of Operations, 127 Consecutive Years of Dividends

Food industry heavyweight General Mills (NYSE: GIS) sits at nearly the opposite end of the investment spectrum from a freshly public space company. Founded in 1866, the company has built a portfolio of household brands spanning virtually every aisle of the grocery store — from Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch to Nature Valley, Progresso, Old El Paso, Green Giant, and Betty Crocker, among dozens of others.

What makes the stock particularly notable right now is its dividend profile. General Mills currently offers a dividend yield of 6.3%, an elevated figure that reflects both a generous payout and a stock price that has declined significantly in recent years. When share buybacks are factored in, the total shareholder yield reaches approximately 8.7%. The company has maintained uninterrupted dividend payments for 127 consecutive years — a streak that spans multiple recessions, wars, and market crises.

Valuation Metrics Suggest the Stock Is Trading Below Historical Norms

The decline in General Mills' share price — averaging annual losses of roughly 15% over the past three years — has pushed valuation metrics well below their historical ranges. The stock's forward price-to-earnings ratio recently stood at 12.5, compared to a five-year average of 15. Its price-to-sales ratio of 1.1 is similarly compressed relative to the five-year average of 1.8.

These figures suggest the market has priced in meaningful pessimism about the company's near-term outlook, which may or may not prove warranted depending on how management executes its turnaround plan.

Management Points to Timing Issues, Not Structural Decline

In its third-quarter results, General Mills' leadership attributed recent performance challenges to a cluster of short-term factors: retailer inventory adjustments, weather-related supply chain disruptions, brand investment spending, divestitures, and unfavorable trade expense timing. Critically, management characterized many of these as "timing headwinds expected to become tailwinds in Q4."

CEO Jeff Harmening elaborated on the company's longer-term strategy, stating: "We are laser focused on increasing our efficiency to help offset elevated inflation, fund our growth investments, and generate stronger earnings and cash flow. We're targeting $3 billion in cumulative cost savings by fiscal 2030. I'm confident we're on the path to restoring profitable growth and driving shareholder value over the long term."

Whether those targets are achievable remains to be seen, but the language signals that leadership views current headwinds as temporary rather than structural.

Defensive Characteristics in a Potentially Volatile Market

One dimension of the General Mills story that analysts frequently highlight is its recession-resistant business model. Consumer staples companies — those selling food products people purchase regardless of economic conditions — historically hold their value better than growth-oriented sectors during market downturns.

With ongoing macro uncertainty and recession concerns circulating in financial markets, the contrast between a high-growth, newly public technology company and a century-old consumer staples firm becomes particularly relevant. Grocery staples like cereals and canned vegetables tend to see relatively stable demand even when discretionary spending contracts sharply.

What Investors Are Watching

For General Mills, the key near-term catalyst will be its fourth-quarter earnings report, where investors will look for evidence that the Q3 headwinds have indeed reversed as management predicted. Progress toward the $3 billion cost-savings target and any updates on the divestiture strategy will also be closely monitored.

For SpaceX (SPCX), the trajectory of the stock relative to its $162 IPO price will remain a focus, as continued pressure below that level could weigh on investor sentiment around the company's long-term commercial space ambitions.

Both companies represent very different risk and return profiles — one a speculative growth story at the frontier of aerospace, the other a mature consumer staples business navigating a cyclical reset.