AQR Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

AQR Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 22.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 981,767 shares of the company's stock after selling 291,334 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.47% of Flowers Foods worth $20,195,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FLO. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 88.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 287,625 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 135,111 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 27,266 shares of the company's stock valued at $629,000 after buying an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 144.5% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 40,422 shares of the company's stock valued at $933,000 after buying an additional 23,890 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Flowers Foods by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 135,572 shares of the company's stock worth $3,080,000 after acquiring an additional 24,085 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new stake in Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter valued at $4,461,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Flowers Foods Stock Performance

NYSE FLO traded down $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $17.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,937,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,546,521. The business's fifty day moving average price is $18.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.90. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.17 and a twelve month high of $26.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a P/E/G ratio of 8.72 and a beta of 0.37.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio is presently 82.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FLO has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Flowers Foods from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Flowers Foods from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $21.00.

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.