Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D cut its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 40.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 84,887 shares of the company’s stock after selling 57,029 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $1,884,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 80.3% in the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 538 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 56.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods in the second quarter valued at approximately $59,000. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FLO has been the subject of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on Flowers Foods in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 1.4 %

Flowers Foods stock opened at $23.44 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.64 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $22.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.17.

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

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.10%. Flowers Foods’s 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.