Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Buys 63,002 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,154,727 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 63,002 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned about 0.55% of Flowers Foods worth $25,993,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 37.0% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,583,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,171,000 after buying an additional 1,238,749 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,690,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,069,000 after buying an additional 37,237 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,616,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,401,000 after buying an additional 18,730 shares during the last quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. now owns 3,276,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,755,000 after buying an additional 125,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,880,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,336,000 after buying an additional 65,691 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE FLO opened at $22.80 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.64, a PEG ratio of 5.74 and a beta of 0.37. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $23.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.15. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.64 and a 52-week high of $26.33.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.35% and a net margin of 2.45%. The firm’s quarterly 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.21%. 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%.

Insider Activity

In other Flowers Foods news, Director Edward J. Jr. Casey acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $23.55 per share, for a total transaction of $117,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 20,330 shares in the company, valued at approximately $478,771.50. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 11.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on FLO. DA Davidson upped their target price on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Flowers Foods from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.00.

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.