Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Position Increased by Squarepoint Ops LLC

Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 199.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 195,520 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 130,167 shares during the quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Flowers Foods worth $4,341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,694,000 after buying an additional 2,239,592 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its position in Flowers Foods by 293.7% in the fourth quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 782,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,614,000 after acquiring an additional 583,749 shares in the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 2nd quarter worth $10,392,000. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at $5,751,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,907,000 after purchasing an additional 242,797 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on FLO shares. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of FLO stock opened at $23.07 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $4.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12-month low of $19.64 and a 12-month high of $26.12. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $22.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.17.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 18.97% and a net margin of 2.51%. The business’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is 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.