VELA Investment Management LLC Grows Position in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

VELA Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 23.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 33,106 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,371 shares during the period. VELA Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $684,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter valued at $330,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 77.3% during the fourth quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 38,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $789,000 after purchasing an additional 16,639 shares in the last quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 40.0% during the fourth quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. now owns 147,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,037,000 after purchasing an additional 42,000 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in Flowers Foods by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 50,406 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 96,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,985,000 after acquiring an additional 9,942 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 subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.00.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $18.85 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $19.62 and a 200 day moving average of $21.53. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 12 month low of $17.99 and a 12 month high of $26.12. The firm has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a PE ratio of 16.11, a PEG ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 last year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.09%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is presently 82.05%.

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.