Ipsen Advisor Group LLC Purchases New Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Ipsen Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 448,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,261,000. Flowers Foods comprises 7.9% of Ipsen Advisor Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 28.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 17,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $399,000 after purchasing an additional 3,857 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 329,400.0% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 3,294 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.8% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 87,043 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,008,000 after acquiring an additional 3,951 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 202.4% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $142,000 after acquiring an additional 4,123 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 3.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,008,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,327,000 after purchasing an additional 58,141 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FLO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com lowered Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their target price on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FLO opened at $18.06 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.94. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12 month low of $17.95 and a 12 month high of $26.12.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 4.86%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.32%. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.05%.

Flowers Foods 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.