Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires Shares of 869,058 Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 869,058 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,363,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FLEX. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Flex during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Huntington National Bank grew its stake in shares of Flex by 87.9% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,024 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Flex during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Flex by 23.6% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,596 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. acquired a new position in shares of Flex during the 4th quarter worth $64,000. 94.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Flex

In other news, Director Lay Koon Tan sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.25, for a total transaction of $2,162,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michael P. Hartung sold 64,807 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.89, for a total transaction of $2,844,379.23. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 233,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,249,456.14. This represents a 21.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.82% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Flex Price Performance

NASDAQ:FLEX opened at $40.35 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company’s 50-day moving average is $41.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.66. Flex Ltd. has a 12-month low of $25.27 and a 12-month high of $45.10.

Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts expect that Flex Ltd. will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Craig Hallum upped their price target on shares of Flex from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Flex from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Flex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Flex in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $52.00 price objective on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.33.

Flex Profile

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.