Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the four brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $24.00.

FLO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 25th. DA Davidson increased their target price on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Flowers Foods from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FLO. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 184.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 184,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,085,000 after buying an additional 119,501 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Flowers Foods by 10.6% in the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,907 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 1,145 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Flowers Foods by 17.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,028,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,807,000 after purchasing an additional 155,985 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Flowers Foods by 3.0% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 28,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $629,000 after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the period. Finally, Algert Global LLC purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at about $998,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

NYSE FLO opened at $21.93 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.17, a PEG ratio of 5.71 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The business’s 50 day moving average is $23.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.14. Flowers Foods has a 12-month low of $19.64 and a 12-month high of $26.33.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.35% and a net margin of 2.45%. The business’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. Research analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 6th. This is a positive change from Flowers Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.