Inspire Investing LLC Purchases 842 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,924 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 842 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $354,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,148,077 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,533,000 after acquiring an additional 84,001 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 4.3% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,907,000 after purchasing an additional 242,797 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 73.1% during the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,694,000 after purchasing an additional 2,239,592 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,631,000 after purchasing an additional 54,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,720,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,592,000 after purchasing an additional 160,794 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of FLO opened at $23.44 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $4.95 billion, a PE ratio of 39.73, a PEG ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.64 and a 12-month high of $26.12. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.17.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were given 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 is currently 162.71%.

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.