Principal Securities Inc. Purchases 860 Shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

Principal Securities Inc. boosted its position in Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) by 15.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,498 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 860 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Flex were worth $249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Flex by 23.6% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,596 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR grew its holdings in shares of Flex by 2.6% in the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 14,106 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $472,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Flex by 2.0% in the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 20,720 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in Flex by 87.9% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,024 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Flex by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 10,413 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. 94.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on Flex from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on Flex in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Flex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.33.

Flex Trading Down 3.2 %

NASDAQ:FLEX opened at $40.35 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $15.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.10. Flex Ltd. has a 1 year low of $25.27 and a 1 year high of $45.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $41.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share 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, analysts expect that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Flex

In related news, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.89, for a total value of $2,844,379.23. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 233,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,249,456.14. This represents a 21.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.25, for a total value of $2,162,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 202,850 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,773,262.50. This represents a 19.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Flex 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.