Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) has received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the four analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and three have assigned a hold recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $22.75.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FLO. DA Davidson boosted 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. StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO stock opened at $23.34 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $4.91 billion, a PE ratio of 39.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $22.54 and a 200-day moving average of $23.12. Flowers Foods has a one year low of $19.64 and a one year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The business had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. Flowers Foods’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 162.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 80.3% in the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 538 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 56.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

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.