SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 57,637 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

SG Americas Securities LLC trimmed its holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 79.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 15,302 shares of the company’s stock after selling 57,637 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 56.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,325 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 840 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 7,694.7% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 264.0% during the 2nd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,494 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 2,534 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on FLO. BNP Paribas began coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 0.5 %

NYSE FLO opened at $22.96 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $23.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.12. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a one year low of $19.64 and a one year high of $26.12. The company has a market capitalization of $4.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.92, a P/E/G ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.19.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. Flowers Foods’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.18%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is presently 162.71%.

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.