Jabil (NYSE:JBL) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Shares of Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $139.48, but opened at $146.30. Jabil shares last traded at $145.95, with a volume of 440,800 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on JBL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Jabil from $160.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Jabil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of Jabil in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Jabil from $128.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Jabil from $157.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.83.

Jabil Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $156.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. The firm has a market cap of $16.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.08, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.19.

Jabil (NYSE:JBL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The technology company reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.12. Jabil had a return on equity of 41.87% and a net margin of 4.71%. The firm had revenue of $6.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Jabil Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jabil Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Jabil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Frederic E. Mccoy sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.81, for a total value of $599,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 138,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,744,490.32. The trade was a 2.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Christopher S. Holland sold 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.27, for a total transaction of $551,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,093,283. The trade was a 20.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 77,400 shares of company stock valued at $12,804,458. Company insiders own 1.73% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jabil

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JBL. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Jabil in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Jabil in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Jabil in the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Jabil by 90.3% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 274 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Jabil by 113.7% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 297 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. 93.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Jabil

Jabil Inc provides manufacturing services and solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Electronics Manufacturing Services and Diversified Manufacturing Services. The company offers electronics design, production, and product management services; electronic circuit design services, such as application-specific integrated circuit design, firmware development, and rapid prototyping services; and designs plastic and metal enclosures that include the electro-mechanics, such as the printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA).