Arizona State Retirement System Grows Stock Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 56,152 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,032 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $1,247,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,224,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,422,000. Armistice Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $839,000. Inceptionr LLC purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $321,000. Finally, Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Southeast Asset Advisors Inc. now owns 3,276,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,755,000 after purchasing an additional 125,761 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FLO has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Finally, BNP Paribas started coverage on Flowers Foods in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $22.87 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.36. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.12. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $19.64 and a 1-year high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 162.71%.

Flowers Foods 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.