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Who Are Flowers Foods Inc’s (NYSE:FLO) Major Shareholders?

The big shareholder groups in Flowers Foods Inc (NYSE:FLO) have power over the company. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said ‘Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.’

Flowers Foods has a market capitalization of US$4.07b, so it’s too big to fly under the radar. We’d expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. In the chart below below, we can see that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let’s take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about FLO.

See our latest analysis for Flowers Foods

NYSE:FLO Ownership Summary September 21st 18
NYSE:FLO Ownership Summary September 21st 18

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Flowers Foods?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it’s included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Flowers Foods already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 66.9% of the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can’t rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Flowers Foods, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

NYSE:FLO Income Statement Export September 21st 18
NYSE:FLO Income Statement Export September 21st 18

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Flowers Foods is not owned by hedge funds. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Flowers Foods

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Flowers Foods Inc. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful US$513.5m stake in this US$4.07b business. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 20.5% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over FLO. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow of shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.

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