Boston Partners Sells 6,181,692 Shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

Key Points

• Boston Partners has reduced its stake in Flex Ltd. by 23.7%, selling over 6 million shares and now holding approximately 19.9 million shares, which represents 0.8% of its portfolio.
• Other institutional investors have increased their investments in Flex, with notable increases from Invesco Ltd. (up 55%) and Pacer Advisors Inc. (up 3,794.6%) in the first quarter.
• Flex recently reported a strong earnings performance, with a $0.72 EPS for the quarter, surpassing estimates and showing a revenue increase of 4.1% year-over-year.

Boston Partners reduced its stake in shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX - Free Report) by 23.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,932,882 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 6,181,692 shares during the quarter. Flex comprises about 0.8% of Boston Partners' investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Boston Partners owned 5.20% of Flex worth $658,265,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. bought a new stake in Flex in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Flex during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. CX Institutional purchased a new position in Flex during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Flex in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. 94.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Flex Stock Performance

Shares of FLEX traded down $0.44 on Friday, reaching $49.00. 4,663,018 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,225,455. The firm has a market cap of $18.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Flex Ltd. has a 12 month low of $25.11 and a 12 month high of $53.97. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $49.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.51.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.09. Flex had a return on equity of 20.25% and a net margin of 3.42%. The business had revenue of $6.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. Flex's quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on FLEX shares. Bank of America boosted their target price on Flex from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. KGI Securities lowered Flex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays boosted their target price on Flex from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Flex from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Flex from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $53.71.

Insider Transactions at Flex

In other Flex news, EVP David Scott Offer sold 6,887 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.01, for a total value of $309,983.87. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 148,643 shares in the company, valued at $6,690,421.43. This represents a 4.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 6,887 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.01, for a total value of $309,983.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 303,718 shares in the company, valued at $13,670,347.18. This trade represents a 2.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 659,186 shares of company stock valued at $28,621,302. 0.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.