Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) Short Interest Update

Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,560,000 shares, a decline of 11.1% from the January 15th total of 2,880,000 shares. Approximately 2.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Insider Activity at Jabil

In other news, EVP Frederic E. Mccoy sold 4,000 shares of Jabil stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.81, for a total value of $599,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 138,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,744,490.32. The trade was a 2.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Steven A. Raymund sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 119,108 shares in the company, valued at $18,021,040.40. This represents a 14.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 77,400 shares of company stock worth $12,804,458 in the last ninety days. 1.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Jabil

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Jabil by 70,781.4% during 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. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Jabil by 12,251.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,206,384 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $264,391,000 after purchasing an additional 2,188,521 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Jabil in the fourth quarter worth $218,430,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in Jabil by 1,007.6% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 965,629 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $138,954,000 after purchasing an additional 878,444 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in Jabil by 406.5% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 722,800 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,613,000 after purchasing an additional 580,100 shares during the last quarter. 93.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

JBL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Jabil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of Jabil in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Jabil from $128.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Jabil from $136.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Jabil from $157.00 to $179.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Jabil has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $153.17.

Jabil Price Performance

JBL stock traded down $0.22 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $169.43. 1,067,733 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,300,466. The company has a market capitalization of $18.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a 50-day moving average of $155.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $131.77. Jabil has a twelve month low of $95.85 and a twelve month high of $174.80.

Jabil (NYSE:JBL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The technology company reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.12. Jabil had a net margin of 4.71% and a return on equity of 41.87%. The company had revenue of $6.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.61 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Jabil will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jabil Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Jabil’s payout ratio is 3.07%.

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).