Cwm LLC Grows Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Cwm LLC grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 61.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,618 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 7,051 shares during the quarter. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FLO. 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 worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 840 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods in the second quarter worth $59,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 7,694.7% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,962 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,924 shares during the period. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 264.0% in the second quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 2,534 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 69.6% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 5,489 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,000 after acquiring an additional 2,252 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on FLO. 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 target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO opened at $22.96 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $4.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.64 and a 12-month high of $26.12.

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

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.