Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Key Points

• Flowers Foods beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.29 EPS versus the $0.28 consensus, though revenue came in slightly below forecasts at $1.57 billion.
• Management said cost discipline and strong execution helped offset softer sales, but comparable sales still fell 1.2% as traditional loaf volumes remained under pressure from promotions, trade-down, and weak consumer demand.
• The company is leaning on better-for-you and snacking brands like Nature’s Own Keto, Dave’s Killer Bread, Canyon Bakehouse, and Simple Mills, while also cutting its annual dividend to $0.50 per share to reduce leverage and support growth investments.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO - Get Free Report) released its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.01, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.58 billion. Flowers Foods had a return on equity of 16.61% and a net margin of 1.59%. Flowers Foods updated its FY 2026 guidance to 0.800-0.900 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Flowers Foods' conference call:

• Flowers Foods said first-quarter execution and cost discipline helped deliver bottom-line results ahead of market expectations, even though comparable sales fell 1.2% on softer trends.
• Traditional loaf volumes remained pressured by heavy promotions, consumer trade-down, and macro weakness, with management saying the category is still soft and near-term top-line trends remain cautious.
• The company highlighted strong momentum in better-for-you and snacking brands, including Nature’s Own Keto, Dave’s Killer Bread, Canyon Bakehouse, and especially Simple Mills, which posted 9% retail sales growth and is expected to accelerate through 2026.
• Management emphasized the Nature’s Own relaunch with fewer, simpler ingredients and a major marketing push, calling it a key step in strengthening the brand’s position in the better-for-you segment.
• Flowers cut its annual dividend to $0.50 per share to reduce leverage and interest expense, and it ended the quarter at 3.2x net leverage, though management expects the move to improve financial flexibility and fund growth investments.

Flowers Foods Price Performance

FLO stock traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $7.02. 15,654,592 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,879,811. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.94. Flowers Foods has a one year low of $6.80 and a one year high of $17.24. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.54 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.2475 per share. This represents a $0.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. Flowers Foods's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 247.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FLO. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $10.00 to $8.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Zacks Research cut Flowers Foods from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $7.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Stephens reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $11.00 to $8.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Flowers Foods from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "sell (d)" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Flowers Foods currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $9.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryals Mcmullian sold 209,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.03, for a total transaction of $1,678,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 813,380 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,531,441.40. This trade represents a 20.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 7.23% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flowers Foods

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 4th quarter valued at $399,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,333,854 shares of the company's stock valued at $58,032,000 after purchasing an additional 1,732,003 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 1,905.6% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 297,124 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 282,309 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 76.8% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 102,316 shares of the company's stock worth $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 44,447 shares during the period. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC boosted its position in Flowers Foods by 73.7% during the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 24,310 shares of the company's stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 10,313 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.45% of the company's stock.

Flowers Foods Company Profile

Flowers Foods, Inc is one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States, offering a variety of fresh bread, buns, rolls, snack cakes and tortillas. Headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, the company operates an extensive network of bakeries and distribution centers that serve retail grocery chains, convenience stores, mass merchandisers and foodservice customers nationwide. Flowers Foods markets its products under well-known brands such as Nature's Own, Wonder, Dave's Killer Bread, Mrs.

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