CluenexFlowers Foods FLO
Flowers Foods scores weak on business quality (4.2 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Flowers Foods does
Flowers Foods bakes and markets packaged bakery foods, selling items like Nature's Own and Wonder bread to retail and foodservice customers.
- What it does best
Flowers Foods commands a top-quartile gross margin of 49%, reflecting deep scale in direct-store-delivery logistics that smaller independent bakers cannot easily replicate across regional grocery networks.
- The main risk
Product recalls threaten brand trust, as seen with the recent recall of Nature's Own Hawaiian bread due to undeclared milk, which risks pulling down margins and consumer loyalty.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin stands at 6.3% and net margin is 1.1%, driven by thin operational efficiency that limits profitability gains.
Its distribution network locks in grocery retailers, supported by a gross margin in the top quartile of its sector at 69% percentile rank.
Revenue grew at 3% to reach $5.2B, showing a sluggish expansion rate that lags behind historical peaks.
Total debt sits at $1.8B with an interest coverage ratio of 4.1x, while free cash flow reached $306M, leaving the balance sheet soft.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on FLO
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Flowers Foods scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (4.2 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health fair.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 5, 2026, after the close.
See FLO today
- Today's verdict on FLO, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Flowers Foods (FLO)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/flo/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.