Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $22.43 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.36. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $22.55 and its 200-day moving average is $22.81. Flowers Foods has a one year low of $20.50 and a one year high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.41% and a net margin of 4.70%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. Flowers Foods’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Flowers Foods will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.28%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is presently 84.21%.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FLO. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the second quarter valued at approximately $59,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 7,694.7% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,924 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

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.