Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by Signaturefd LLC

Signaturefd LLC lessened its stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 20,660 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,119 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FLO. Cooke & Bieler LP increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,694,000 after purchasing an additional 2,239,592 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 65.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,314,556 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,104,000 after acquiring an additional 520,661 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods during the second quarter worth $10,392,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 4.3% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,907,000 after acquiring an additional 242,797 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods during the first quarter worth $4,644,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FLO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Flowers Foods in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO stock opened at $22.31 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a PE ratio of 37.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.64 and a 52-week high of $26.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $22.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 162.71%.

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.