Royce & Associates LP Sells 24,551 Shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

Royce & Associates LP cut its stake in shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 282,657 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 24,551 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Flex were worth $10,851,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Flex by 619.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,465,814 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $149,350,000 after buying an additional 3,844,935 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Flex by 462.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,639,769 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $88,247,000 after purchasing an additional 2,170,262 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Flex by 210.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,957,477 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $75,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,327,298 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Flex in the 4th quarter valued at $33,363,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Flex in the fourth quarter valued at $32,293,000. Institutional investors own 94.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Flex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on shares of Flex in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.33.

Insider Transactions at Flex

In other news, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now owns 202,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,773,262.50. This trade represents a 19.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 233,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,249,456.14. This represents a 21.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Flex Stock Performance

Shares of FLEX stock opened at $35.23 on Tuesday. Flex Ltd. has a 52 week low of $25.27 and a 52 week high of $45.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $40.09 and a 200 day moving average of $37.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.21, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.07.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts expect that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.