Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 61,200 Flowers Foods, Inc. $FLO

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 61,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 859.6% during the 4th quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 4,026,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,809,000 after purchasing an additional 3,606,962 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at about $21,680,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 70.1% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,603,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,082,000 after buying an additional 1,896,607 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 48.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,333,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,032,000 after buying an additional 1,732,003 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.6% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 3,683,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,068,000 after buying an additional 1,561,493 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Diego Anthony Scaglione purchased 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $7.51 per share, with a total value of $37,550.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer directly owned 194,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,291.80. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 7.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

Shares of FLO stock opened at $8.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96 and a beta of 0.39. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $7.89 and a 200-day moving average of $9.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.57. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a one year low of $6.80 and a one year high of $16.85.

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

Flowers Foods Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 12th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 12th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 142.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FLO. Stephens cut their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $8.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings downgraded Flowers Foods from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $9.60.

Flowers Foods Company 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.