Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Grows Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 2.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 95,888 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,447 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $2,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 85.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 540,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,460,000 after buying an additional 248,800 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 18.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 49,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,139,000 after acquiring an additional 7,655 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 5.2% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 31,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $719,000 after acquiring an additional 1,540 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 42.3% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 81,209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after acquiring an additional 24,137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the third quarter worth about $200,000. 75.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com raised Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

FLO opened at $21.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.50 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company has a fifty day moving average of $22.78 and a 200 day moving average of $22.96.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.42%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

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.