Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Raised to "Strong-Buy" at StockNews.com

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report released on Wednesday.

FLO has been the topic of a number of other reports. BNP Paribas started coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Flowers Foods from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of FLO traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $23.05. The company had a trading volume of 975,771 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,218,185. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $22.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.07. Flowers Foods has a 52 week low of $19.64 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The company has a market capitalization of $4.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.84 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.35% and a net margin of 2.45%. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,148,077 shares of the company's stock valued at $453,533,000 after buying an additional 84,001 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company's stock valued at $129,907,000 after buying an additional 242,797 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its holdings 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 valued at $117,694,000 after buying an additional 2,239,592 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company's stock valued at $102,631,000 after buying an additional 54,757 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted 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 buying an additional 160,794 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Company 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.

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