Boston Trust Walden Corp Decreases Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Boston Trust Walden Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,831,184 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,532 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $79,152,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in Flowers Foods during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $453,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 5.5% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 738,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,396,000 after purchasing an additional 38,369 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 61.0% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 18,618 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,000 after purchasing an additional 7,051 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the third quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC raised its holdings in Flowers Foods by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 17,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $411,000 after buying an additional 1,902 shares during the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $19.56 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $20.70 and a 200 day moving average of $21.97. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.90 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The company 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. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

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

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.