Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 46,587 Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 46,587 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,034,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 129.5% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 138,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,107,000 after acquiring an additional 77,883 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position 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 period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 74,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after purchasing an additional 4,089 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 46.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 146,624 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,300,000 after acquiring an additional 46,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter worth $26,016,000. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE FLO opened at $23.77 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $22.79 and a 200-day moving average of $23.15. The firm has a market cap of $5.02 billion, a PE ratio of 40.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.64 and a 1-year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The business had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. Flowers Foods’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.04%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 162.71%.

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.