Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 29.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 453,312 shares of the company’s stock after selling 186,194 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.21% of Flowers Foods worth $10,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 95,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,212,000 after acquiring an additional 2,447 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 85.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 540,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,460,000 after acquiring an additional 248,800 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 49,376 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,139,000 after acquiring an additional 7,655 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 31,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $719,000 after acquiring an additional 1,540 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 42.3% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 81,209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after buying an additional 24,137 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $21.57 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.36. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.88. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.50 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12.

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

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 84.21%.

Flowers Foods 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.