Prudential PLC Cuts Holdings in Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

Prudential PLC reduced its stake in Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) by 17.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,946 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,676 shares during the period. Prudential PLC’s holdings in Flex were worth $561,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FLEX. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Flex in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new stake in Flex in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. CX Institutional acquired a new stake in Flex in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Flex in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in Flex by 73.3% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. 94.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Flex Stock Down 0.9%

NASDAQ:FLEX opened at $49.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.05. Flex Ltd. has a one year low of $25.11 and a one year high of $53.97. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.36.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. Flex had a return on equity of 20.25% and a net margin of 3.42%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.51 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Flex

In other Flex news, CEO Revathi Advaithi sold 181,028 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.91, for a total value of $7,767,911.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,463,695 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,807,152.45. This trade represents a 11.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 35,393 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.87, for a total transaction of $1,517,297.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 293,195 shares in the company, valued at $12,569,269.65. This represents a 10.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 659,186 shares of company stock valued at $28,621,302 over the last ninety days. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp increased their price target on Flex from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Flex from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Flex in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Barclays raised their target price on Flex from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, KGI Securities downgraded Flex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Flex currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.71.

About Flex

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.