Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 4.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 30,400 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,433 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FLO. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods during the 3rd quarter worth about $52,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods in the second quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 7,694.7% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,924 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Flowers Foods from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 0.9 %

FLO opened at $21.83 on Friday. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.50 and a 1 year high of $26.12. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $22.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a PE ratio of 19.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.36.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.70% and a return on equity of 19.41%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.40%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is currently 84.21%.

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.