Capital Fund Management S.A. Takes Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. $FLO

Capital Fund Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 49,317 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $938,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 91.6% in the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,392,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,548,000 after purchasing an additional 4,011,428 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 270.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,449,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,610,000 after purchasing an additional 5,437,735 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,612,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,694,000 after purchasing an additional 159,460 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,299,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,829,000 after purchasing an additional 428,963 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,782,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,902,000 after purchasing an additional 307,614 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO stock opened at $14.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $15.95 and a 200 day moving average of $17.24. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $14.83 and a 52 week high of $23.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.29 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 15th. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.30% and a return on equity of 17.85%. The firm had revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.000-1.10 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $0.2475 dividend. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 95.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FLO. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Flowers Foods in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.33.

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.