Short Interest in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Increases By 18.0%

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) was the target of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 12,500,000 shares, a growth of 18.0% from the February 13th total of 10,590,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,950,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.4 days. Approximately 6.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on FLO. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FLO. Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,476,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,591,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,381,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,521,000 after purchasing an additional 965,097 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 33.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,475,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,138,000 after purchasing an additional 623,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter worth approximately $12,058,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO stock traded down $0.20 on Wednesday, reaching $18.42. The stock had a trading volume of 569,200 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,336,301. Flowers Foods has a 12 month low of $17.99 and a 12 month high of $26.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.75, a P/E/G ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $19.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.86% and a return on equity of 19.48%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.21%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.05%.

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.