Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 518,745 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,737,981 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 518,745 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.80% of Flowers Foods worth $469,767,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FLO. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter worth $12,058,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company's stock valued at $95,971,000 after purchasing an additional 259,216 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,461,000. Moran Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,940,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 88.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 287,625 shares of the company's stock worth $6,636,000 after buying an additional 135,111 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FLO. Truist Financial cut their target price on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $21.00.

Remove Ads

Flowers Foods Stock Up 1.3 %

FLO stock traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $19.22. The company had a trading volume of 3,734,948 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,480,798. The company has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.42, a PEG ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.41. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.95 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.86% and a return on equity of 19.48%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.00%. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio is presently 82.05%.

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.