Short Interest in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Declines By 12.7%

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,910,000 shares, a decline of 12.7% from the February 28th total of 12,500,000 shares. Approximately 5.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,200,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,476,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,591,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 28.2% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,381,444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,521,000 after purchasing an additional 965,097 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 33.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,475,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,138,000 after purchasing an additional 623,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth $12,058,000. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of FLO stock traded up $0.11 during trading on Thursday, hitting $19.07. The company had a trading volume of 1,292,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,472,626. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $18.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Flowers Foods has a 52 week low of $17.95 and a 52 week high of $26.12.

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

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.05%.

Flowers Foods Company 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.