Man Group plc Acquires Shares of 1,497,487 Flowers Foods, Inc. $FLO

Man Group plc bought a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,497,487 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,830,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,091,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,476,000 after purchasing an additional 736,624 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $273,587,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 1,515.5% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 357,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,892,000 after buying an additional 335,582 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 21.1% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,862,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,179,000 after buying an additional 324,229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 457.1% in the first quarter. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. now owns 213,007 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,736,000 after buying an additional 174,771 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FLO. Jefferies Financial Group set a $7.00 price objective on shares of Flowers Foods in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Stephens cut their price target on Flowers Foods from $8.00 to $6.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 3rd. Weiss Ratings lowered Flowers Foods from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Flowers Foods from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $7.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Flowers Foods

In other news, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $7.51 per share, with a total value of $37,550.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer directly owned 194,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,291.80. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 7.23% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FLO opened at $6.98 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.28. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $6.80 and a fifty-two week high of $15.14. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.86 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 20th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.01). Flowers Foods had a net margin of 1.06% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.750-0.850 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

About Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, Inc is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States, offering a variety of fresh bread, buns, rolls, snack cakes and tortillas. Headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, the company operates an extensive network of bakeries and distribution centers that serve retail grocery chains, convenience stores, mass merchandisers and foodservice customers nationwide. Flowers Foods markets its products under well-known brands such as Nature’s Own, Wonder, Dave’s Killer Bread, Mrs.