Flowers Foods, Inc. Forecasted to Post FY2024 Earnings of $1.23 Per Share (NYSE:FLO)

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) – Research analysts at Zacks Research cut their FY2024 EPS estimates for Flowers Foods in a research note issued on Thursday, April 18th. Zacks Research analyst V. Bagree now anticipates that the company will post earnings of $1.23 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $1.24. The consensus estimate for Flowers Foods’ current full-year earnings is $1.25 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Flowers Foods’ Q4 2024 earnings at $0.22 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $0.36 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $1.37 EPS.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.42% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on FLO. StockNews.com raised shares of Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $24.00 price objective on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

NYSE FLO opened at $24.05 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.46, a PEG ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.39. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.30. Flowers Foods has a twelve month low of $19.64 and a twelve month high of $29.10.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.83%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Flowers Foods

In other Flowers Foods news, insider Terry S. Thomas sold 36,577 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.11, for a total value of $845,294.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,740 shares in the company, valued at approximately $987,721.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Edward J. Jr. Casey acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $23.55 per share, for a total transaction of $117,750.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 20,330 shares in the company, valued at approximately $478,771.50. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Terry S. Thomas sold 36,577 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.11, for a total transaction of $845,294.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $987,721.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 11.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,148,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,533,000 after buying an additional 84,001 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 19,313,735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $529,389,000 after buying an additional 243,602 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 206.0% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,286,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $473,823,000 after buying an additional 11,637,370 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,852,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $266,805,000 after buying an additional 746,717 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 8.1% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,999,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,254,000 after buying an additional 450,441 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.