Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

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

Flowers Foods Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:FLO opened at $22.84 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods has a 1-year low of $19.64 and a 1-year high of $26.12. The company’s fifty day moving average is $22.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.12. 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 issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 18.97%. The firm’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,224,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,422,000. Armistice Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth approximately $839,000. Inceptionr LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth approximately $321,000. Finally, Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. now owns 3,276,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,755,000 after purchasing an additional 125,761 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.