Stifel Nicolaus Increases Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) Price Target to $52.00

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) had its price objective hoisted by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $45.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 4.02% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on FLEX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Flex from $44.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen cut Flex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Flex from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Flex from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Flex in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $53.71.

Flex Stock Up 0.6%

Flex stock opened at $49.99 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.93, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Flex has a fifty-two week low of $25.11 and a fifty-two week high of $53.97.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.09. Flex had a net margin of 3.42% and a return on equity of 20.25%. The company had revenue of $6.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.27 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Flex will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Flex

In other news, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 6,887 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.01, for a total value of $309,983.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 303,718 shares in the company, valued at $13,670,347.18. This trade represents a 2.22% 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, CEO Revathi Advaithi sold 37,465 shares of Flex stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.01, for a total value of $1,686,299.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,363,312 shares in the company, valued at approximately $61,362,673.12. This represents a 2.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,135,941 shares of company stock worth $47,582,965. 0.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Flex

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Flex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $229,484,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Flex by 55.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,363,106 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $276,652,000 after acquiring an additional 2,968,285 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Flex by 3,794.6% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,900,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $95,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,825,667 shares during the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its stake in Flex by 13,790.0% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,238,019 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,528,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229,106 shares during the period. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lifted its holdings in Flex by 73.6% during the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,777,753 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $91,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177,970 shares during the last quarter. 94.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.