Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Short Interest Update

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,820,000 shares, a growth of 9.8% from the September 30th total of 3,480,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FLO has been the subject of several research reports. BNP Paribas started coverage on Flowers Foods in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued 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 report on Wednesday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE:FLO opened at $22.00 on Wednesday. Flowers Foods has a 1-year low of $19.64 and a 1-year high of $26.12. The company has a 50-day moving average of $22.97 and a 200 day moving average of $23.09. The firm has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a PE ratio of 37.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

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

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 162.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FLO. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,128,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,799,000 after acquiring an additional 46,180 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.2% during the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 47,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 32.2% during the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 3,034 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 30.3% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 81,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,938,000 after acquiring an additional 18,957 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the first quarter valued at about $246,000. 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.