Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 15,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $330,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 281,806 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,822,000 after buying an additional 29,049 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 37,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $767,000 after acquiring an additional 2,553 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 35,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $730,000 after purchasing an additional 1,465 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 886,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,312,000 after purchasing an additional 32,320 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Argyle Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Argyle Capital Management LLC now owns 67,118 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,387,000 after buying an additional 4,100 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 0.7 %

FLO opened at $18.06 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12 month low of $17.95 and a 12 month high of $26.12. The company has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a PE ratio of 15.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.01 and a 200 day moving average of $20.94.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.32%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 82.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on FLO. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.00.

Flowers Foods 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.