Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday.

Separately, DA Davidson started coverage on shares of Flowers Foods in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $24.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.00.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $23.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,139,828 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,197,719. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $5.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.39. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.26. Flowers Foods has a 1-year low of $19.64 and a 1-year high of $29.10.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.42% and a return on equity of 18.15%. Flowers Foods’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Flowers Foods

In related news, insider Terry S. Thomas sold 36,577 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.11, for a total value of $845,294.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,740 shares in the company, valued at $987,721.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Flowers Foods

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FLO. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 206.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,286,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $473,823,000 after acquiring an additional 11,637,370 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter worth about $38,880,000. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 37.0% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,583,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,749 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.6% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,383,121 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,321,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 84.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,165,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,235,000 after acquiring an additional 988,809 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.