Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Director George E. Deese Acquires 6,000 Shares of Stock

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Director George E. Deese bought 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $16.84 per share, with a total value of $101,040.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,004,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,764,031.60. This represents a 0.30% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $17.03 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.34. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.29 and a 1-year high of $23.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.37.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 16th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.60 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 4.86%. The company’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.2475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This is a boost from Flowers Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $0.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.81%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 91.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Moran Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 191,278 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,636,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.0% during the first quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 59,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,131,000 after buying an additional 598 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.0% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 31,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $604,000 after buying an additional 620 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,713 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 694 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.3% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 60,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,151,000 after buying an additional 805 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.25.

Flowers Foods Company 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.