Boston Trust Walden Corp Trims Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Boston Trust Walden Corp lessened its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,831,184 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,532 shares during the quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned about 1.82% of Flowers Foods worth $79,152,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,159,076 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,971,000 after acquiring an additional 259,216 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 85.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 540,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,460,000 after purchasing an additional 248,800 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 423.1% during the 3rd quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 306,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,079,000 after purchasing an additional 248,185 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter worth $4,461,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 416.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 252,757 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,831,000 after buying an additional 203,807 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO stock opened at $19.56 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.97. The stock has a market cap of $4.12 billion, a PE ratio of 17.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.38. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a one year low of $18.90 and a one year high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.29 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.91%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is 84.21%.

About Flowers Foods

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.