39,951 Shares in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Purchased by Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 39,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $825,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. ClearAlpha Technologies LP increased its position in Flowers Foods by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. ClearAlpha Technologies LP now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 590 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Flowers Foods by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 694 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its position in Flowers Foods by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 13,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 1,063 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in Flowers Foods by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 32,191 shares of the company’s stock valued at $665,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:FLO opened at $18.21 on Friday. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a one year low of $17.99 and a one year high of $26.12. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.06 and a 200-day moving average of $21.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.56, a P/E/G ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.41.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.86% and a return on equity of 19.48%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 82.05%.

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.