Geode Capital Management LLC Purchases 259,216 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,159,076 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 259,216 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 1.97% of Flowers Foods worth $95,971,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 4.3% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company's stock worth $129,907,000 after purchasing an additional 242,797 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company's stock worth $117,694,000 after acquiring an additional 2,239,592 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,720,302 shares of the company's stock valued at $82,592,000 after acquiring an additional 160,794 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,008,103 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,327,000 after acquiring an additional 58,141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 65.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314,556 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,104,000 after acquiring an additional 520,661 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of FLO traded down $0.18 on Friday, hitting $20.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,503,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,222,083. The company has a market capitalization of $4.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.94, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.36 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.47. 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 announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The company's revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods's payout ratio is presently 84.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday.

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.