Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Plexus Corp. has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from four research firms, with an average target price of $155.67 per share.
• Insider activity reflects significant share sales, with the Chief Accounting Officer and CFO both reducing their holdings by over 7% and 14%, respectively.
• Plexus reported $1.90 EPS for its latest quarter, exceeding analyst estimates, with a revenue of $1.02 billion, marking a 6% year-over-year increase.

Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the four research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $155.67.

PLXS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $145.00 target price on shares of Plexus in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Plexus in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Plexus from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Sidoti upgraded shares of Plexus from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Plexus from $162.00 to $158.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday.

Insider Activity at Plexus

In other Plexus news, CAO Angelo Michael Ninivaggi, Jr. sold 2,058 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.22, for a total transaction of $272,108.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 26,133 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,455,305.26. The trade was a 7.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Patrick John Jermain sold 4,328 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.29, for a total transaction of $572,551.12. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 25,637 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,391,518.73. This trade represents a 14.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,032 shares of company stock worth $1,582,222 over the last ninety days. 1.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Plexus

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Plexus by 120.4% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 348,510 shares of the technology company's stock worth $44,655,000 after buying an additional 190,360 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Plexus in the first quarter worth about $22,975,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Plexus by 19,069.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 170,797 shares of the technology company's stock worth $21,884,000 after buying an additional 169,906 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Plexus by 146.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 258,824 shares of the technology company's stock worth $40,501,000 after buying an additional 154,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Plexus by 24.7% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 678,222 shares of the technology company's stock worth $86,901,000 after buying an additional 134,205 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.45% of the company's stock.

Plexus Trading Down 9.5%

Plexus stock opened at $121.06 on Friday. Plexus has a 12-month low of $103.43 and a 12-month high of $172.89. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion, a PE ratio of 20.62 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The technology company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.02 billion. Plexus had a net margin of 4.04% and a return on equity of 12.53%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Plexus will post 5.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Plexus Company Profile

Plexus Corp. provides electronic manufacturing services in the United States and internationally. It offers design, develop, supply chain, new product introduction, and manufacturing solutions, as well as sustaining services to companies in the healthcare/life sciences, industrial/commercial, aerospace/defense, and communications market sectors.

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