Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lowered its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 4.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,091,289 shares of the company’s stock after selling 55,953 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC owned about 0.52% of Flowers Foods worth $25,176,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at about $296,000. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Flowers Foods by 2.6% in the third quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC now owns 212,430 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,901,000 after buying an additional 5,358 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 429,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,900,000 after buying an additional 5,035 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thomasville National Bank increased its holdings in Flowers Foods by 30.2% in the third quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 429,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,897,000 after buying an additional 99,599 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on FLO shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. One equities 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of FLO opened at $22.37 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.10. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.64 and a 1-year high of $26.12. The stock has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion during 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 for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.29%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 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.