South Dakota Investment Council Purchases Shares of 11,001 Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

South Dakota Investment Council purchased a new stake in Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 11,001 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $364,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FLEX. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of Flex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $260,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in Flex by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 37,313 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,432,000 after purchasing an additional 4,230 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Flex by 64.3% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 58,239 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,236,000 after acquiring an additional 22,797 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Flex by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 194,305 shares of the technology company's stock worth $7,459,000 after acquiring an additional 50,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Xponance Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Flex in the 4th quarter worth $1,076,000. 94.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP David Scott Offer sold 6,887 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 148,643 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,690,421.43. This trade represents a 4.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 6,887 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.01, for a total transaction of $309,983.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 303,718 shares in the company, valued at $13,670,347.18. This represents a 2.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,135,941 shares of company stock valued at $47,582,965 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company's stock.

Flex Price Performance

Shares of Flex stock traded down $3.05 on Thursday, reaching $50.75. The stock had a trading volume of 5,490,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,126,767. Flex Ltd. has a 1 year low of $25.11 and a 1 year high of $53.97. The company has a market cap of $18.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The business's 50 day moving average is $46.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.52.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.09. Flex had a net margin of 3.25% and a return on equity of 19.01%. The firm had revenue of $6.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Flex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Flex from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Flex from $44.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Flex from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Flex from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Flex has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $52.29.

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.