Flowers Foods: Why The Dividend Cut Makes Me More Bullish

Flowers Foods is reaffirmed as a Strong Buy after executing a 50% dividend cut, freeing capital for debt reduction and potential buybacks in the future, supporting their re-rating. FLO's Q1 results showed modest sales growth thanks to Simple Mills, while free cash flow continued to be strong and in line with my previous expectations. The dividend cut is viewed as a catalyst for FLO's turnaround, with net debt/EBITDA targeted below 3.0x and possible even within a year.