Jane Street Group LLC Raises Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Jane Street Group LLC lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 85.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 72,886 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 33,480 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC's holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $1,681,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company's stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 3rd quarter worth about $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 329,400.0% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company's stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 3,294 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO traded down $0.09 on Friday, reaching $20.47. 1,129,332 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,223,451. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.21 and a twelve month high of $26.12. The stock has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $21.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.39.

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

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Flowers Foods from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th.

Flowers Foods 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.