Insider Selling: Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Insider Sells $25,916.00 in Stock

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) insider Cindy Cox sold 4,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.89, for a total transaction of $25,916.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 41,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $241,666.70. This trade represents a 9.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FLO opened at $6.12 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a PE ratio of 23.54 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $5.40 and a twelve month high of $13.11. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $6.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.44.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.01). Flowers Foods had a net margin of 1.06% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.750-0.850 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 0.80 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th were paid a dividend of $0.1250 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.2%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 192.31%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 2nd quarter valued at about $273,587,000. Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Flowers Foods by 859.6% during the 4th quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 4,026,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,809,000 after buying an additional 3,606,962 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Flowers Foods in the second quarter worth approximately $18,168,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Flowers Foods in the second quarter worth approximately $12,070,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new position in Flowers Foods in the second quarter worth approximately $11,830,000. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Research lowered Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price target on Flowers Foods from $6.50 to $5.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Flowers Foods from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $8.00 to $6.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $6.80.

Flowers Foods Company Profile

Flowers Foods, Inc (NYSE:FLO) is a U.S. food company that produces and markets packaged bakery products. Its portfolio includes breads, buns, rolls, snack cakes, pastries and other baked goods sold through grocery stores, mass retailers, foodservice providers and other retail channels.

The company’s brands include Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Tastykake and Mrs. Freshley’s. Flowers Foods distributes its products throughout the United States through a combination of direct-store-delivery and warehouse distribution systems.

Flowers Foods traces its history to 1919, when it began as a bakery business in Thomasville, Georgia.