Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) Sets New 1-Year Low – Here’s What Happened

Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) reached a new 52-week low on Friday . The company traded as low as $25.11 and last traded at $25.72, with a volume of 7967013 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.32.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FLEX. StockNews.com upgraded Flex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on Flex in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $52.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.33.

Flex Trading Down 9.0 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.18 and a 200 day moving average of $37.60. The company has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.07. Flex had a return on equity of 17.93% and a net margin of 3.95%. On average, analysts predict that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of Flex stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.25, for a total transaction of $2,162,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 202,850 shares in the company, valued at $8,773,262.50. This trade represents a 19.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.89, for a total transaction of $2,844,379.23. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 233,526 shares in the company, valued at $10,249,456.14. This represents a 21.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.82% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Flex

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Flex by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 26,114,574 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,006,436,000 after acquiring an additional 569,916 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Flex by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,298,896 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $472,155,000 after purchasing an additional 817,215 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Flex by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,513,078 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $326,833,000 after purchasing an additional 916,085 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Flex by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,408,070 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $246,006,000 after buying an additional 361,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Flex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $229,484,000. 94.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Flex

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.