HHM Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 264.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,494 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,534 shares during the period. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $78,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 0.4% in 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. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,694,000 after acquiring an additional 2,239,592 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,631,000 after purchasing an additional 54,757 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Flowers Foods by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,690,327 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,069,000 after purchasing an additional 37,237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in 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 period. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FLO has been the subject of several research reports. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. StockNews.com raised Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas began coverage on Flowers Foods in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

NYSE:FLO opened at $22.84 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $19.64 and a twelve month high of $26.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.70, a PEG ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.20%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 162.71%.

Flowers Foods Profile

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.