Krane Funds Advisors LLC Sells 6,687 Shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

Krane Funds Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,092 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,687 shares during the period. Krane Funds Advisors LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $279,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Flowers Foods by 18,254.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,019 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Flowers Foods by 56.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Flowers Foods in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $59,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Flowers Foods by 7,694.7% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,962 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 2,924 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FLO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Flowers Foods from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas started coverage on Flowers Foods in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.75.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE FLO opened at $22.55 on Tuesday. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.64 and a 52 week high of $26.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.17, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a fifty day moving average of $23.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.11.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 16th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 18.97%. The company had revenue of $1.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. The firm’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Flowers Foods Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Flowers Foods’s dividend payout ratio is currently 162.71%.

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.