Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Short Interest Up 11.8% in July

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,310,000 shares, a growth of 11.8% from the July 15th total of 2,960,000 shares. Currently, 1.7% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,280,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FLO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 25th. DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $22.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,148,077 shares of the company's stock valued at $453,533,000 after acquiring an additional 84,001 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company's stock valued at $129,907,000 after acquiring an additional 242,797 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company's stock valued at $117,694,000 after acquiring an additional 2,239,592 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company's stock valued at $102,631,000 after acquiring an additional 54,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.5% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FLO traded up $0.05 during trading on Friday, reaching $22.71. 1,827,934 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,228,019. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Flowers Foods has a 12 month low of $19.64 and a 12 month high of $26.12. The company has a 50 day moving average of $22.33 and a 200-day moving average of $23.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.45% and a return on equity of 18.35%. The business had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 6th were given a $0.24 dividend. This is a boost from Flowers Foods's previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.23%. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio is 162.71%.

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.