Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Purchases 19,072 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. $FLO

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 178,678 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,072 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $2,855,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 2,191.6% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 2,082 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 904.8% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,502 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 2,253 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 63.1% in the first quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 1,446 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the first quarter valued at approximately $97,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 114.9% in the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 3,116 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Flowers Foods news, CEO Ryals Mcmullian sold 350,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.82, for a total value of $4,487,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,231,380 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,786,291.60. This trade represents a 22.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Cindy Cox sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $54,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 16,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $254,910. This trade represents a 17.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 11.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FLO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Flowers Foods in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Flowers Foods in a report on Monday, August 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $15.33.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

NYSE:FLO opened at $12.79 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.21. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1 year low of $12.42 and a 1 year high of $23.44. The company has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.29 and a beta of 0.27.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 15th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 17.85% and a net margin of 4.30%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.000-1.10 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a dividend of $0.2475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.7%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is presently 95.19%.

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.