Goldman Sachs downgraded General Mills Inc to neutral and removed the stock from its Americas buy list, saying revenue growth at the food company could moderate and no longer outshine peers.

In addition, GIS lacks significant exposure to emerging markets, which we believe will boost the top and bottom lines of peers with greater emerging markets presence, Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients.

Analysts Judy Hong and Patricia Graue also said since the company's full-year outlook was already below consensus estimates, it would be more challenging to surprise the market to the upside.

However, last week, the maker of Cheerios cereal and Yoplait yogurt said first-quarter earnings were running ahead of its target as commodity cost inflation has eased.

Like most food companies, General Mills saw earnings pressured in recent years as prices for commodities like wheat and oil soared. But since then, prices of many commodities have eased, and food companies are benefitting from price increases taken when costs were on the rise.

General Mills shares closed at $60.30 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)

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