Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Short Interest Update

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,670,000 shares, a decline of 9.7% from the January 15th total of 9,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.7 days. Approximately 4.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FLO. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 61.0% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 18,618 shares of the company's stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 7,051 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 429,116 shares of the company's stock worth $9,900,000 after acquiring an additional 5,035 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at $296,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008 shares during the period. Finally, Coston McIsaac & Partners grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Coston McIsaac & Partners now owns 195,820 shares of the company's stock worth $4,517,000 after acquiring an additional 7,828 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FLO has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE FLO traded up $0.54 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.89. 1,597,536 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,064,013. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $19.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.65. Flowers Foods has a 12-month low of $17.99 and a 12-month high of $26.12. The firm has a market cap of $3.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.14, a PEG ratio of 8.52 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.17 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.