Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) Shares Sold by Dean Investment Associates LLC

Dean Investment Associates LLC lowered its position in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 6.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 138,947 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,946 shares during the quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $3,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.3% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,851,682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,907,000 after purchasing an additional 242,797 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 73.1% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,301,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,694,000 after purchasing an additional 2,239,592 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 1.2% in the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 4,623,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,631,000 after purchasing an additional 54,757 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,720,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,592,000 after purchasing an additional 160,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 3.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,008,103 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,327,000 after purchasing an additional 58,141 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Flowers Foods stock opened at $21.94 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.25, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.37. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $21.20 and a fifty-two week high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $22.38 and a 200 day moving average of $22.60.

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

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.38%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 84.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th.

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.