Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Stake Increased by Creative Planning

Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 424,081 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,451 shares during the period. Creative Planning owned about 0.20% of Flowers Foods worth $9,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 12,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,000 after acquiring an additional 1,453 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 83,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,876,000 after purchasing an additional 810 shares during the last quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 52,500.0% in the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,734 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 4,725 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings 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 worth $83,069,000 after purchasing an additional 37,237 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FLO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of 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 lowered Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 0.8 %

FLO stock opened at $22.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a PE ratio of 38.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.18. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.64 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.20%. 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.