Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Declares $0.24 Quarterly Dividend

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Flowers Foods has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 23 years. Flowers Foods has a dividend payout ratio of 76.8% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company's earnings decline. Research analysts expect Flowers Foods to earn $1.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 73.8%.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO stock traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $18.34. The company had a trading volume of 1,656,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,079,063. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $19.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.70. The company has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.38. Flowers Foods has a 1 year low of $17.99 and a 1 year high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.41% and a net margin of 4.70%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.20 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on FLO. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, 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 given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Company Profile

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.