StockNews.com Downgrades Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) to Buy

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning.

Separately, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They set an underperform rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 1.4 %

FLO opened at $23.44 on Wednesday. Flowers Foods has a fifty-two week low of $19.64 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company’s 50-day moving average is $22.83 and its 200 day moving average is $23.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.73, a PEG ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The company’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.33 EPS. Research analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 162.71%.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FLO. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,694,000 after purchasing an additional 2,239,592 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at $26,016,000. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 293.7% during the 4th quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 782,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,614,000 after acquiring an additional 583,749 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the second quarter worth $10,392,000. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.