Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Acquired by Geode Capital Management LLC

Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,219,943 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,867 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.00% of Flowers Foods worth $87,205,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,737,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $469,767,000 after purchasing an additional 518,745 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth about $42,591,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,066,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,033,000 after buying an additional 67,750 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 919,272 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,992,000 after acquiring an additional 16,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 886,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,312,000 after acquiring an additional 32,320 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on FLO shares. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $18.20 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $18.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.51. The company has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.55, a PEG ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.20. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a one year low of $17.33 and a one year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 4.86%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.28%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 82.05%.

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.