Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp trimmed its stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLOFree Report) by 12.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,311 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,554 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $215,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,737,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $469,767,000 after acquiring an additional 518,745 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,381,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,521,000 after acquiring an additional 965,097 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,299,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,829,000 after acquiring an additional 428,963 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,219,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,205,000 after acquiring an additional 60,867 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter worth $58,476,000. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FLO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Flowers Foods stock opened at $15.42 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28 and a beta of 0.33. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $16.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.95. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.31 and a 52 week high of $23.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLOGet Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 16th. The company reported $0.35 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $1.60 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 18.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.2475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Flowers Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.42%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 91.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas Caldecot Chubb III purchased 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $16.88 per share, for a total transaction of $50,640.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 45,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $774,133.68. The trade was a 7.00% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director William Jameson Mcfadden purchased 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $16.92 per share, with a total value of $50,760.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 532,476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,009,493.92. The trade was a 0.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 12,000 shares of company stock worth $202,440 over the last three months. 11.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Flowers Foods

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FLO? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLOFree Report).

Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO)

Receive News & Ratings for Flowers Foods Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Flowers Foods and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.