Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus

Equities researchers at Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday. The firm set a “buy” rating and a $52.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price suggests a potential upside of 20.87% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Craig Hallum boosted their price objective on Flex from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Flex in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $41.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $39.00 target price on shares of Flex in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Flex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.33.

Flex Stock Performance

FLEX opened at $43.02 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $40.27 and a 200-day moving average of $35.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.41. Flex has a 52-week low of $25.27 and a 52-week high of $45.10. The company has a market cap of $16.48 billion, a PE ratio of 17.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.07. Flex had a net margin of 3.95% and a return on equity of 17.93%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Flex will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Flex

In related news, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 233,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,249,456.14. This trade represents a 21.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Flex

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FLEX. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Flex by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,596 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in shares of Flex by 2.6% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 14,106 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $472,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Flex by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 35,378 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,358,000 after purchasing an additional 374 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Flex by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 115,236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,424,000 after buying an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its stake in shares of Flex by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 20,720 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.30% of the company’s stock.

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.