Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Holdings Increased by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 21.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 135,572 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,085 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $3,080,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 4.3% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,907,000 after purchasing an additional 242,797 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,694,000 after buying an additional 2,239,592 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 6.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,971,000 after buying an additional 259,216 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 4.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,720,302 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,592,000 after acquiring an additional 160,794 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 3.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,008,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,327,000 after acquiring an additional 58,141 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

FLO opened at $20.52 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.42. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.21 and a fifty-two 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 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 analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.41% and a net margin of 4.70%. Flowers Foods’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued 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 4.68%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th.

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.