Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Short Interest Update

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,300,000 shares, a drop of 14.2% from the March 15th total of 2,680,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,190,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FLO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson initiated coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $24.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Flowers Foods has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Insider Activity at Flowers Foods

In other Flowers Foods news, Director Edward J. Jr. Casey bought 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $23.55 per share, with a total value of $117,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 20,330 shares in the company, valued at approximately $478,771.50. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Edward J. Jr. Casey acquired 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $23.55 per share, with a total value of $117,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 20,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $478,771.50. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Terry S. Thomas sold 36,577 shares of Flowers Foods stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.11, for a total transaction of $845,294.47. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $987,721.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Flowers Foods

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FLO. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 206.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,286,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $473,823,000 after acquiring an additional 11,637,370 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter worth about $38,880,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 37.0% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,583,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,749 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,383,121 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,321,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 84.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,165,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,235,000 after acquiring an additional 988,809 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $22.92 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a PE ratio of 39.51, a P/E/G ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.27. Flowers Foods has a one year low of $19.64 and a one year high of $29.10.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.42% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.23 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.01%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 158.62%.

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.