Martingale Asset Management L P Takes $1.57 Million Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Martingale Asset Management L P acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 68,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,571,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 2.0% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 23,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 1.0% in the second quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 52,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,172,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 21,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 603 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 45,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,003,000 after buying an additional 625 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $22.62 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52-week low of $20.50 and a 52-week high of $26.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $22.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.41% and a net margin of 4.70%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. Flowers Foods’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th.

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.