Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Purchases 603 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 2.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,728 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 603 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $482,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 52,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,242,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Argyle Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Argyle Capital Management Inc. now owns 66,018 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,568,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 80.3% in the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 166,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,961,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FLO opened at $23.44 on Friday. The firm 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. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $22.83 and a 200 day moving average of $23.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.19. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a one year low of $19.64 and a one year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 18.97%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 162.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on FLO. 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 target for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.75.

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.