Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) Stock Jumps 3.9% – What’s Next?

Posted by Stanley Muller on Oct 9th, 2026

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO – Get Free Report) shares rose 3.9% on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $5.94 and last traded at $5.9650. 2,720,945 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average daily volume of 6,523,595 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.74.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on FLO shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Flowers Foods from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Zacks Research lowered Flowers Foods from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 15th. Weiss Ratings raised Flowers Foods from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Stephens cut their price target on Flowers Foods from $8.00 to $6.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Flowers Foods from $6.50 to $5.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Flowers Foods has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $6.80.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.87 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a fifty day moving average of $6.54 and a 200-day moving average of $7.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 20th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.01). Flowers Foods had a net margin of 1.06% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. Flowers Foods’s revenue was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. Flowers Foods has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.750-0.850 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Flowers Foods, Inc. will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Flowers Foods Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th were issued a dividend of $0.1250 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 11th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.4%. Flowers Foods’s payout ratio is 192.31%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Flowers Foods

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLO. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Flowers Foods in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $273,587,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 14.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,545,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,497,000 after acquiring an additional 925,245 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Flowers Foods by 859.6% during the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 4,026,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,809,000 after acquiring an additional 3,606,962 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Flowers Foods during the second quarter worth $18,168,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Flowers Foods by 8.5% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,770,355 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,428,000 after acquiring an additional 138,775 shares during the period. 75.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Flowers Foods

(Get Free Report)

Flowers Foods, Inc (NYSE:FLO) is a U.S. food company that produces and markets packaged bakery products. Its portfolio includes breads, buns, rolls, snack cakes, pastries and other baked goods sold through grocery stores, mass retailers, foodservice providers and other retail channels.

The company’s brands include Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, Tastykake and Mrs. Freshley’s. Flowers Foods distributes its products throughout the United States through a combination of direct-store-delivery and warehouse distribution systems.

Flowers Foods traces its history to 1919, when it began as a bakery business in Thomasville, Georgia.