Jabil (NYSE:JBL) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Jabil (NYSE:JBL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Jabil from $160.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Jabil from $152.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Jabil from $179.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Jabil from $172.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 price target (up previously from $150.00) on shares of Jabil in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.50.

Jabil Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:JBL opened at $145.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Jabil has a 1-year low of $95.85 and a 1-year high of $174.80. The company has a market capitalization of $15.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $155.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $138.39.

Jabil (NYSE:JBL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The technology company reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.11. Jabil had a net margin of 4.71% and a return on equity of 41.87%. The business had revenue of $6.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Jabil will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Jabil Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Jabil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.07%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Christopher S. Holland sold 3,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.27, for a total value of $551,718.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,093,283. This represents a 20.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Frederic E. Mccoy sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.81, for a total transaction of $599,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 138,472 shares in the company, valued at $20,744,490.32. This represents a 2.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 77,400 shares of company stock valued at $12,804,458. 1.73% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Jabil by 70,781.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,808,730 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $835,876,000 after buying an additional 5,800,535 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Jabil by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,533,149 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $796,220,000 after buying an additional 416,841 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Jabil by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,810,519 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $404,024,000 after buying an additional 34,574 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Jabil by 18.2% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,877,599 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $270,187,000 after buying an additional 288,806 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Jabil in the 4th quarter worth about $218,430,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.39% of the company’s stock.

Jabil Company Profile

Jabil Inc provides manufacturing services and solutions worldwide. It operates in two segments, Electronics Manufacturing Services and Diversified Manufacturing Services. The company offers electronics design, production, and product management services; electronic circuit design services, such as application-specific integrated circuit design, firmware development, and rapid prototyping services; and designs plastic and metal enclosures that include the electro-mechanics, such as the printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA).