First Trust Advisors LP Decreases Stake in Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

First Trust Advisors LP cut its holdings in shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) by 89.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 18,827 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 157,429 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Flex were worth $723,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Flex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Flex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Flex by 112.9% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 960 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Flex by 46.7% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,502 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 478 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Flex by 82.9% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,553 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. 94.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.25, for a total transaction of $2,162,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 202,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,773,262.50. This represents a 19.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP David Scott Offer sold 87,093 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.43, for a total value of $3,172,797.99. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 71,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,586,566.43. This represents a 55.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Flex Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of FLEX stock opened at $38.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.44. Flex Ltd. has a 52-week low of $25.11 and a 52-week high of $45.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.75 billion, a PE ratio of 15.53, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.41.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.04. Flex had a return on equity of 17.93% and a net margin of 3.95%. The company had revenue of $6.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Flex from $46.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Flex from $52.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Flex from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Flex from $53.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on Flex in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $43.83.

Flex Company Profile

Flex Ltd. provides technology, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It operates through three segments: Flex Agility Solutions (FAS), Flex Reliability Solutions (FRS), and Nextracker. The FAS segment offers flexible supply and manufacturing system comprising communications, enterprise and cloud solution, which includes data, edge, and communications infrastructure; lifestyle solution including appliances, consumer packaging, floorcare, micro mobility, and audio; and consumer devices, such as mobile and high velocity consumer devices.