Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New Investment in Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 841,172 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,293,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Flex by 2.2% in 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. raised its position in shares of Flex by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,298,896 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $472,155,000 after purchasing an additional 817,215 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Flex by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,408,070 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $246,006,000 after purchasing an additional 361,049 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Flex during the 4th quarter worth $229,484,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Flex by 42.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,394,821 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $207,107,000 after buying an additional 1,620,812 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.30% of the company’s stock.

Flex Stock Performance

FLEX opened at $30.93 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.85 billion, a PE ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.99. Flex Ltd. has a 1 year low of $25.11 and a 1 year high of $45.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.36. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.07. Flex had a net margin of 3.95% and a return on equity of 17.93%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Flex news, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of Flex stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 233,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,249,456.14. This trade represents a 21.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now owns 202,850 shares in the company, valued at $8,773,262.50. This represents a 19.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FLEX shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Flex from $53.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Flex from $46.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised Flex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on shares of Flex in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $52.00 target price on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Flex has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $43.67.

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.