Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Purchased by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 135,572 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,085 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.06% of Flowers Foods worth $3,080,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 144.5% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 40,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,000 after purchasing an additional 23,890 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.8% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 27,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,971,000 after buying an additional 259,216 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 88.6% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 287,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,636,000 after buying an additional 135,111 shares during the period. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the 3rd quarter valued at about $274,000. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO opened at $20.52 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $21.98 and a 200-day moving average of $22.42. The company has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.21 and a 1 year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. Flowers Foods’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

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.