KBC Group NV Has $2.82 Million Stock Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 2,156.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 136,354 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 130,310 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned 0.06% of Flowers Foods worth $2,817,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FLO. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 6.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company's stock worth $95,971,000 after purchasing an additional 259,216 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 85.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 540,104 shares of the company's stock worth $12,460,000 after purchasing an additional 248,800 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 423.1% in the third quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 306,848 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,079,000 after purchasing an additional 248,185 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter worth $4,461,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 416.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 252,757 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,831,000 after purchasing an additional 203,807 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock traded down $0.21 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $19.34. The stock had a trading volume of 2,584,109 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,012,755. The business has a fifty day moving average of $20.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.93. The firm has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.97, a PEG ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.38. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.90 and a fifty-two week 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.96%. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 84.21%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of 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.