Boston Trust Walden Corp Boosts Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. $FLO

Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 7.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,424,817 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 164,186 shares during the quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $38,749,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 91.6% during the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,392,872 shares of the company’s stock worth $159,548,000 after purchasing an additional 4,011,428 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 270.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,449,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,610,000 after buying an additional 5,437,735 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,612,523 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,694,000 after buying an additional 159,460 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,782,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,902,000 after buying an additional 307,614 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,756,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,392,000 after buying an additional 14,389 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Flowers Foods

In other news, insider Cindy Cox sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total value of $54,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $254,910. This represents a 17.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryals Mcmullian sold 350,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.82, for a total value of $4,487,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,231,380 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,786,291.60. This represents a 22.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FLO shares. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $15.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective on shares of Flowers Foods in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $15.33.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of FLO stock opened at $12.70 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.27. The business’s fifty day moving average is $14.31 and its 200 day moving average is $16.00. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $12.42 and a twelve month high of $23.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 15th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.27 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 17.85% and a net margin of 4.30%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.000-1.10 EPS. Research analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. 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, September 19th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a $0.2475 dividend. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.19%.

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.