Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,400,000 shares, a decline of 13.4% from the August 15th total of 5,080,000 shares. Currently, 4.0% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,590,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Jabil news, SVP May Yee Yap sold 4,274 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.04, for a total value of $500,228.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 24,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,905,986.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP May Yee Yap sold 4,274 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.04, for a total transaction of $500,228.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 24,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,905,986.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Frederic E. Mccoy sold 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.42, for a total transaction of $145,525.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 112,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,126,704.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Jabil

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in JBL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Jabil in the 4th quarter worth approximately $192,964,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Jabil by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,070,238 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,919,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,427,429 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Jabil in the second quarter worth $78,660,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Jabil by 195.8% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,060,799 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $115,404,000 after purchasing an additional 702,199 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Jabil by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 1,339,559 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $170,660,000 after purchasing an additional 359,818 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

JBL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Jabil from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Jabil from $130.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Jabil from $150.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Jabil from $137.00 to $133.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Jabil from $149.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Jabil currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $139.88.

Jabil Stock Performance

Shares of Jabil stock traded up $1.02 on Wednesday, reaching $107.85. 1,346,895 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,450,546. The firm has a market cap of $12.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.25. Jabil has a 1-year low of $95.85 and a 1-year high of $156.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.13. The company’s 50-day moving average is $107.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $118.27.

Jabil (NYSE:JBL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The technology company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.04. Jabil had a return on equity of 40.30% and a net margin of 4.63%. The firm had revenue of $6.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.53 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.85 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Jabil will post 7.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Jabil Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. Jabil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.91%.

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).