Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Director Edward J. Jr. Casey Buys 5,000 Shares of Stock

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Director Edward J. Jr. Casey purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $23.55 per share, for a total transaction of $117,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,330 shares in the company, valued at $478,771.50. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Flowers Foods Stock Down 1.6 %

Flowers Foods stock opened at $23.14 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.87 billion, a PE ratio of 39.89, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.39. The company’s 50-day moving average is $22.91 and its 200-day moving average is $22.26. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.64 and a fifty-two week high of $29.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.42% and a return on equity of 18.15%. Flowers Foods’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 158.62%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FLO. State Street Corp grew its stake in Flowers Foods by 206.0% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,286,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $473,823,000 after buying an additional 11,637,370 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,880,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its stake in Flowers Foods by 37.0% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,583,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,171,000 after buying an additional 1,238,749 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Flowers Foods by 73.6% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,383,121 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,321,000 after buying an additional 1,010,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Flowers Foods by 84.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,165,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,235,000 after buying an additional 988,809 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on FLO. DA Davidson began coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $24.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.00.

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.