Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO – Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a buy rating on the stock.

Separately, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Flowers Foods from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 3rd.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO opened at $26.68 on Thursday. Flowers Foods has a 1 year low of $24.15 and a 1 year high of $30.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $27.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.64. The firm has a market cap of $5.64 billion, a PE ratio of 24.93 and a beta of 0.39.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 10th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.77% and a net margin of 4.75%. The business had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, March 3rd were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 2nd. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.24%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Natixis purchased a new position in Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,178,000. Macquarie Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 59,422.9% during the 4th quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 2,047,587 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,848,000 after buying an additional 2,044,147 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at about $701,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 414.9% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 722,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,774,000 after buying an additional 582,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 281,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,097,000 after buying an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.81% of the company’s stock.

About Flowers Foods

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Flowers Foods, Inc engages in the manufacture and sale of bakery products. The firm offers bakery foods for retail and food service customers in the United States. Its brands include Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Tastykake and Mrs. Freshley’s. The company was founded by William Howard Flowers, Sr.