New York State Common Retirement Fund Cuts Stake in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in shares of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO - Free Report) by 75.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 89,598 shares of the company's stock after selling 281,900 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund's holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $1,703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FLO. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Flowers Foods during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 617.3% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,700 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 1,463 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 2,191.6% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,177 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 2,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Flowers Foods by 904.8% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,502 shares of the company's stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,253 shares in the last quarter. 75.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Flowers Foods news, Director George E. Deese purchased 6,000 shares of Flowers Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $16.84 per share, for a total transaction of $101,040.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,004,990 shares in the company, valued at $33,764,031.60. This trade represents a 0.30% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Caldecot Chubb III purchased 3,000 shares of Flowers Foods stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $16.88 per share, with a total value of $50,640.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 45,861 shares in the company, valued at $774,133.68. The trade was a 7.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 12,000 shares of company stock worth $202,440. Corporate insiders own 11.57% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on FLO. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Flowers Foods from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Flowers Foods from $20.00 to $16.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 16th.

Flowers Foods Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of Flowers Foods stock traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $16.26. The company had a trading volume of 2,147,205 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,644,764. The company's 50-day moving average is $16.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.78. Flowers Foods, Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.27 and a twelve month high of $23.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.05 and a beta of 0.33.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 16th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Flowers Foods had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 18.91%. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were issued a $0.2475 dividend. This is a boost from Flowers Foods's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $0.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.09%. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio is presently 91.67%.

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.