Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC trimmed its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 4.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,400 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,433 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $701,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,907,000 after acquiring an additional 242,797 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,694,000 after buying an additional 2,239,592 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,631,000 after buying an additional 54,757 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,720,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,592,000 after buying an additional 160,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 65.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314,556 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,104,000 after acquiring an additional 520,661 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO stock opened at $21.83 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.15, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $22.71 and a 200-day moving average of $22.93. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12-month low of $20.50 and a 12-month high of $26.12.

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

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.40%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

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.