Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Lifted 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 report released on Tuesday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on FLO. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Flowers Foods in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an underperform rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $22.87 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $22.58 and a 200-day moving average of $23.12. The company has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods has a 1 year low of $19.64 and a 1 year high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 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 analyst estimates 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 earned $0.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 162.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,224,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the first quarter valued at $2,422,000. Armistice Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter worth about $839,000. Inceptionr LLC bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter worth about $321,000. Finally, Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. now owns 3,276,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,755,000 after acquiring an additional 125,761 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

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.