Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and five have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $9.60.

A number of research firms recently commented on FLO. Stephens lowered their target price on shares of 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. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryals Mcmullian sold 209,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.03, for a total value of $1,678,270.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 813,380 shares in the company, valued at $6,531,441.40. This represents a 20.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $7.51 per share, for a total transaction of $37,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer 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. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 7.23% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Flowers Foods

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 24.8% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,448,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,808,000 after acquiring an additional 287,578 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 542.5% in the first quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 3,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 2,859 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth LLC TN acquired a new position in Flowers Foods in the first quarter valued at approximately $158,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 21.1% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,862,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,179,000 after acquiring an additional 324,229 shares during the period. Finally, Parvin Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 71.9% in the first quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 22,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 9,325 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $7.96 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $7.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.74 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Flowers Foods has a 52 week low of $6.80 and a 52 week high of $16.85.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 1.38% and a return on equity of 15.98%. Flowers Foods’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.800-0.900 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 0.85 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 12th were given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 12th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.3%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 142.86%.

About Flowers Foods

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.