Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) Short Interest Update

Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,140,000 shares, a growth of 18.5% from the March 15th total of 9,400,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,970,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company's shares are sold short.

Flex Stock Performance

NASDAQ FLEX traded up $0.56 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $35.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,126,233 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,981,392. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $13.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.99. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $34.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.34. Flex has a 12 month low of $25.11 and a 12 month high of $45.10.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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, sell-side analysts expect that Flex will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Flex news, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.89, for a total value of $2,844,379.23. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 233,526 shares in the company, valued at $10,249,456.14. This trade represents a 21.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $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.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FLEX. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Flex by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 26,114,574 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,006,436,000 after buying an additional 569,916 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flex by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,298,896 shares of the technology company's stock worth $472,155,000 after acquiring an additional 817,215 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Flex by 12.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,513,078 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $326,833,000 after acquiring an additional 916,085 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Flex by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,408,070 shares of the technology company's stock worth $246,006,000 after purchasing an additional 361,049 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Flex during the fourth quarter valued at $229,484,000. 94.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Flex from $52.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Flex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on Flex in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $52.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp cut their target price on Flex from $46.00 to $35.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Flex from $53.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $43.67.

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.