HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 8,472 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

HighTower Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 23.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 27,922 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,472 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FLO. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Flowers Foods during the third quarter worth $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 3rd quarter worth about $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the 2nd quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 329,400.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 3,294 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of FLO opened at $20.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.10, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.48. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52-week low of $20.51 and a 52-week high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.41% and a net margin of 4.70%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.65%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 84.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday.

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.