Dean Investment Associates LLC Trims Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Dean Investment Associates LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 13.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 120,400 shares of the company's stock after selling 18,547 shares during the quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC owned 0.06% of Flowers Foods worth $2,487,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,737,981 shares of the company's stock worth $469,767,000 after buying an additional 518,745 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,219,943 shares of the company's stock worth $87,205,000 after buying an additional 60,867 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new position in Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at about $58,476,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 33.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,475,242 shares of the company's stock worth $51,138,000 after acquiring an additional 623,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,591,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FLO traded down $0.25 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.16. 294,694 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,515,832. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.33 and a 52-week high of $26.12. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $18.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.26. The company has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.52, a PEG ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.40.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 4.86%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.29%. Flowers Foods's payout ratio is presently 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.