Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Short Interest Update

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,820,000 shares, a growth of 9.8% from the September 30th total of 3,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,010,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days. Approximately 2.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Flowers Foods stock traded up $0.17 on Thursday, reaching $22.25. The stock had a trading volume of 529,017 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,148,815. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.36. Flowers Foods has a 1 year low of $19.64 and a 1 year high of $26.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $22.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.08.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 18.97%. Flowers Foods’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is presently 162.71%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on FLO. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.75.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 95,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,212,000 after acquiring an additional 2,447 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Flowers Foods by 85.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 540,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,460,000 after acquiring an additional 248,800 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 49,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,139,000 after purchasing an additional 7,655 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 31,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $719,000 after purchasing an additional 1,540 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 42.3% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 81,209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 24,137 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.