California Public Employees Retirement System Raises Stock Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 919,272 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 16,690 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.44% of Flowers Foods worth $18,992,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,591,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at $12,058,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,737,981 shares of the company's stock valued at $469,767,000 after purchasing an additional 518,745 shares during the last quarter. Ipsen Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth $9,261,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company's stock worth $95,971,000 after purchasing an additional 259,216 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FLO traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.32. 2,643,658 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,507,197. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $18.74 and a 200 day moving average of $20.54. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.33 and a 1 year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.86% and a return on equity of 19.48%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.05%.

About Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, Inc produces and markets packaged bakery food products in the United States. Its principal products include fresh breads, buns, rolls, snack items, bagels, English muffins, and tortillas, as well as frozen breads and rolls under the Nature's Own, Dave's Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Mrs.