Krane Funds Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Krane Funds Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,537 shares of the company’s stock after selling 555 shares during the quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,737,981 shares of the company’s stock valued at $469,767,000 after purchasing an additional 518,745 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,219,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,205,000 after buying an additional 60,867 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 33.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,475,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,138,000 after buying an additional 623,800 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 4th quarter valued at $42,591,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,066,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,033,000 after buying an additional 67,750 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on FLO. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of 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 downgraded Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price target on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 2.0 %

NYSE:FLO opened at $18.83 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.20. The company has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.09, a P/E/G ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.40. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.95 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $18.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.69.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.01. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.86% and a return on equity of 19.48%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.20 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 82.05%.

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.