Barclays PLC Buys 135,111 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 88.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 287,625 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 135,111 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.14% of Flowers Foods worth $6,636,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company's stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 466 shares during the period. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 1.0% during the second quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 52,779 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,172,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 4.4% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 11,819 shares of the company's stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. ClearAlpha Technologies LP increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 4.4% in the third quarter. ClearAlpha Technologies LP now owns 14,013 shares of the company's stock valued at $323,000 after purchasing an additional 590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 2.9% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 21,728 shares of the company's stock worth $482,000 after purchasing an additional 603 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Flowers Foods from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of FLO traded down $0.12 on Thursday, hitting $20.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,223,881 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,208,691. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.51 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $22.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.50.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The firm's revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods's payout ratio is 84.21%.

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.