Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $35.95, but opened at $36.79. Flex shares last traded at $36.48, with a volume of 237,171 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FLEX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on shares of Flex in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Flex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Flex currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.33.

Flex Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.41. The firm has a market cap of $13.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.30.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,773,262.50. The trade was a 19.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.89, for a total transaction of $2,844,379.23. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 233,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,249,456.14. The trade was a 21.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Flex in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Flex in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Flex by 112.9% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 960 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Flex in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Flex by 87.9% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,024 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 479 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.