Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $21.21 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a PE ratio of 18.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. Flowers Foods has a 52 week low of $20.95 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

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

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.53%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 84.21%.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 21.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 135,572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,080,000 after buying an additional 24,085 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 144.5% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 40,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,000 after acquiring an additional 23,890 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 27,266 shares of the company’s stock valued at $629,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,971,000 after purchasing an additional 259,216 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 88.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 287,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 135,111 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.