Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,560,000 shares, an increase of 22.8% from the February 28th total of 2,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,500,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days. Currently, 3.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of Jabil in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays upped their price objective on Jabil from $179.00 to $184.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Jabil from $172.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Jabil from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Jabil from $160.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Jabil

In other news, EVP Frederic E. Mccoy sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.81, for a total transaction of $599,240.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 138,472 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,744,490.32. This represents a 2.81 % 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, Director Steven A. Raymund sold 20,000 shares of Jabil stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.30, for a total value of $3,026,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 119,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,021,040.40. The trade was a 14.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 77,400 shares of company stock worth $12,804,458. Insiders own 1.73% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jabil

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

Jabil Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE JBL traded up $0.13 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $136.20. The company had a trading volume of 940,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,439,527. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $153.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $140.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 1.06. Jabil has a 12 month low of $95.85 and a 12 month high of $174.80.

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. The business had revenue of $6.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.40 billion. Jabil had a net margin of 4.71% and a return on equity of 41.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Jabil will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Jabil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. Jabil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.66%.

About Jabil

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).