Great West Life Assurance Co. Can Increases Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO – Get Rating) by 7.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 145,258 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,220 shares during the period. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can owned 0.07% of Flowers Foods worth $3,585,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 38.9% in the 2nd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 15,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 4,342 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $243,000. ARGI Investment Services LLC increased its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. ARGI Investment Services LLC now owns 46,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 5,490 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 33.8% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 52,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,390,000 after purchasing an additional 13,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Planning Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $230,000. 66.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FLO shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 25th.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $26.59 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.64. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.15 and a 12-month high of $30.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07 and a beta of 0.39.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 10th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.02. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.66% and a return on equity of 18.53%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 1st. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.28%.

Flowers Foods Company Profile

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Flowers Foods, Inc engages in the manufacture and sale of bakery products. The firm offers bakery foods for retail and food service customers in the United States. Its brands include Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Tastykake and Mrs. Freshley’s. The company was founded by William Howard Flowers, Sr.