Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 0.9 %

FLO opened at $20.45 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.31 billion, a PE ratio of 17.94, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. Flowers Foods has a one year low of $20.36 and a one year high of $26.12. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $22.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $22.46.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.41% and a net margin of 4.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.69%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Flowers Foods during the third quarter worth $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Flowers Foods in the 3rd quarter valued at about $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods during the second quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 329,400.0% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 3,294 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

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.