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

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

Flowers Foods Trading Up 0.5 %

FLO opened at $22.22 on Tuesday. Flowers Foods has a one year low of $20.50 and a one year high of $26.12. The company has a market cap of $4.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.49, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.82.

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

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.32%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 84.21%.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,907,000 after purchasing an additional 242,797 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,239,592 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,631,000 after acquiring an additional 54,757 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,971,000 after acquiring an additional 259,216 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,720,302 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,592,000 after acquiring an additional 160,794 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.