SG Americas Securities LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

SG Americas Securities LLC decreased its holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 79.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,302 shares of the company’s stock after selling 57,637 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter worth about $2,224,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter worth about $2,422,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its position in Flowers Foods by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 247,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,879,000 after buying an additional 24,192 shares during the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the 2nd quarter worth about $711,000. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the 1st quarter valued at about $4,644,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FLO shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas started 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

NYSE FLO opened at $22.96 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $23.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.92, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.64 and a 52 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 released 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. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 18.97%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is 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.