Jane Street Group LLC Has $1.68 Million Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 85.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 72,886 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 33,480 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $1,681,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 3rd quarter worth about $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the second quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 329,400.0% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 3,294 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $20.56 on Friday. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $20.21 and a 1-year high of $26.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.41.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. The company 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. 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.