Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Purchased by Edgestream Partners L.P.

Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 3.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 206,126 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,279 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. owned about 0.10% of Flowers Foods worth $4,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of 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 worth $453,533,000 after buying an additional 84,001 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 37.0% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,583,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,749 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,690,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,069,000 after acquiring an additional 37,237 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,616,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,401,000 after purchasing an additional 18,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 125,761 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson raised their price target on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.20.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $22.21. 1,441,580 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,219,626. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76. The business has a 50-day moving average of $22.85 and a 200-day moving average of $23.10. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.64 and a 1 year high of $26.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.02, a P/E/G ratio of 5.78 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 16th. The company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.45% and a return on equity of 18.35%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 6th. This is a positive change from Flowers Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 162.71%.

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.