Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by Salem Investment Counselors Inc.

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 216,345 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,096 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. owned about 0.10% of Flowers Foods worth $4,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 21,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $482,000 after purchasing an additional 603 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the second quarter worth approximately $59,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Flowers Foods by 99.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 181,926 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,039,000 after purchasing an additional 90,587 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 30,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $682,000 after buying an additional 5,532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 141,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,145,000 after buying an additional 7,929 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $19.28. The company had a trading volume of 1,050,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,924,142. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $4.06 billion, a PE ratio of 16.91, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.97 and a 1-year high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The business’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.98%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

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.