Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Raised to Hold at Zacks Research

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) was upgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on FLO. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Flowers Foods from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings cut Flowers Foods from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 16th. Stephens reduced their price target on Flowers Foods from $6.00 to $5.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane cut their target price on shares of Flowers Foods from $6.50 to $5.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $6.70.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO opened at $6.42 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $6.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.89. Flowers Foods has a 12-month low of $5.40 and a 12-month high of $12.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.74 and a beta of 0.38.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 1.06% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The business’s revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.750-0.850 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Flowers Foods will post 0.80 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Flowers Foods news, insider Cindy Cox sold 4,400 shares of Flowers Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.89, for a total transaction of $25,916.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 41,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $241,666.70. The trade was a 9.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 7.23% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Flowers Foods

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Flowers Foods in the third quarter valued at $55,000. Independent Advisor Alliance acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the third quarter worth about $94,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 10.4% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 803,874 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,815,000 after buying an additional 76,020 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flowers Foods by 68.2% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 4,436 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 1,799 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 18.2% during the third quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 13,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 2,069 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Flowers Foods Company Profile

Flowers Foods, Inc. is a U.S. bakery company that produces and markets packaged breads, buns, rolls, snack cakes and other baked goods. Its products are sold under brands including Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Tastykake, Canyon Bakehouse and Mrs. Freshley’s. Founded in 1919 in Thomasville, Georgia, the company has grown from a local bakery into a national producer of baked goods. Flowers Foods serves consumers across the United States through grocery stores and other retail channels, using a mix of direct-store delivery and warehouse distribution.