Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on FLO. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Flowers Foods in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an underperform rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO opened at $22.87 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $22.58 and a 200 day moving average of $23.12. The company has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.66, a PEG ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods has a 12 month low of $19.64 and a 12 month high of $26.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The business’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is presently 162.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the first quarter worth about $26,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 80.3% during the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 538 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 56.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods during the second quarter valued at about $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.