Reviewing Flex (FLEX) & The Competition

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) is one of 377 public companies in the “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Flex to related companies based on the strength of its valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Flex has a beta of 1.8, indicating that its stock price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flex’s competitors have a beta of -0.29, indicating that their average stock price is 129% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.3% of Flex shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.5% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Flex shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.1% of shares of all “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Flex and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Flex	$30.95 billion	$880.00 million	25.19
Flex Competitors	$4.05 billion	$172.92 million	4.78

Flex has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Flex is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Flex and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Flex	0	2	8	2	3.00
Flex Competitors	2049	7616	10449	665	2.47

Flex presently has a consensus target price of $131.78, suggesting a potential upside of 88.85%. As a group, “Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components” companies have a potential upside of 41.02%. Given Flex’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Flex is more favorable than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Flex and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Flex	3.35%	24.93%	5.63%
Flex Competitors	-141.19%	-31.04%	-7.22%

Summary

Flex beats its competitors on 12 of the 13 factors compared.

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. Its FRS segment provides complex ramps with specialized production models and critical environments, which comprise automotive including next generation mobility, autonomous, connectivity, electrification, and smart technologies; health solutions, such as medical devices, medical equipment, and drug delivery; and industrial solutions including capital equipment, industrial devices, and renewables and grid edge. The Nextracker segment offers solar tracker and software solutions, which are used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects. In addition, it provides a broad array of services including design and engineering, component services, rapid prototyping, fulfillment, and circular economy solutions. The company was formerly known as Flextronics International Ltd. and changed its name to Flex Ltd. in September 2016. Flex Ltd. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Singapore.