Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. Has $1.11 Million Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 11.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 53,611 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,712 shares during the period. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc.’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $1,108,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.4% in the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. ClearAlpha Technologies LP grew its position in Flowers Foods by 4.4% in the third quarter. ClearAlpha Technologies LP now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 590 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.9% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 21,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 603 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 5.6% during the second quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 15,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Independent Advisor Alliance increased its position in Flowers Foods by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 13,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 1,063 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th.

Flowers Foods Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $19.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $21.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.11. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.90 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.09 billion, a PE ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.39.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.94%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

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.