Flowers Foods, Inc. $FLO Shares Sold by Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 86.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,095 shares of the company’s stock after selling 76,833 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $99,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FLO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Flowers Foods by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,091,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,476,000 after buying an additional 736,624 shares in the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 96.5% during the 3rd quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 1,092,633 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,259,000 after acquiring an additional 536,507 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 1,515.5% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 357,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,892,000 after acquiring an additional 335,582 shares in the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,664,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 144.8% in the 1st quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 341,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,782,000 after acquiring an additional 201,946 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione acquired 5,000 shares of Flowers Foods stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $7.51 per share, for a total transaction of $37,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 194,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,291.80. The trade was a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 7.23% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FLO has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 30th. Zacks Research raised Flowers Foods from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings cut Flowers Foods from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Stephens cut their price target on Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $8.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.60.

Flowers Foods Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of FLO opened at $7.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.93. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1-year low of $6.80 and a 1-year high of $16.85. The stock has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.16 and a beta of 0.39.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 21st. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 1.38%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.800-0.900 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 142.86%.

Flowers Foods Profile

Flowers Foods, Inc is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States, offering a variety of fresh bread, buns, rolls, snack cakes and tortillas. Headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, the company operates an extensive network of bakeries and distribution centers that serve retail grocery chains, convenience stores, mass merchandisers and foodservice customers nationwide. Flowers Foods markets its products under well-known brands such as Nature’s Own, Wonder, Dave’s Killer Bread, Mrs.