Analysts Set Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) PT at $24.00

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $24.00.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FLO shares. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. StockNews.com raised Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Flowers Foods from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $22.16 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods has a 12 month low of $19.64 and a 12 month high of $26.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $23.66 and its 200-day moving average is $23.16.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.02). Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.45% and a return on equity of 18.35%. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 6th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. This is a positive change from Flowers Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 162.71%.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FLO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,148,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,533,000 after purchasing an additional 84,001 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 37.0% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,583,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,238,749 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,690,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,069,000 after purchasing an additional 37,237 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,616,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,401,000 after buying an additional 18,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. now owns 3,276,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,755,000 after buying an additional 125,761 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.