Nordea Investment Management AB Invests $4.46 Million in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 216,550 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,461,000. Nordea Investment Management AB owned about 0.10% of Flowers Foods at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods during the third quarter worth $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the 3rd quarter worth $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods in the second quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its position in Flowers Foods by 329,400.0% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 3,294 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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 Trading Down 4.7 %

NYSE FLO opened at $19.01 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.39. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.98 and a twelve month high of $26.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The business’s fifty day moving average is $21.42 and its 200 day moving average is $22.22.

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

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. Flowers Foods’s dividend 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.