Dallas, Texas 04/22/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) is scheduled to report its fourth quarter and fiscal year FY 2014 earnings on April 30, 2014. Analysts have recently been leaning towards downgrading the company’s ratings and price targets downwards, but all that seems to have come to a screeching halt with a slew of hold ratings in the lead up to the earnings report.
Zacks Downgrades FLEX
Early in April, Zacks downgraded FLEX from “outperform” to “neutral” and that seems to have set the tone, with the company being put on hold by five of the ten ratings firms that cover FLEX. A bit of uncertainty before the annual earnings report is nothing to be concerned about.
Besides, the company’s share price has still not hit analyst price targets. FLEX is currently shuttling around in the $9.3 to $9.4 range, while analyst price targets are around the $11 range. For instance, Craig Hallum, which earlier this month upgraded FLEX from “hold” to “buy,” has set a price target of $11.
Citigroup Inc. likewise raised its price target for FLEX from $9 to $9.50, which again is higher than the current price. Zacks has a price target of $10.20 for FLEX.
Earnings Forecast
Of course, all this crystal ball gazing becomes a moot point when the earnings report is released at the end of the month. Flextronics needs to beat analyst estimates in order to shift gear and move from hold to buy once again.
If you’re looking at the historical data, you’ll see that the company reported an EPS of $0.26 in the previous quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.23 by three cents. The $7.18 billion in revenue for the quarter was likewise far above the consensus estimate of $6.70 billion. If Flextronics comes anywhere close to beating analyst estimates again, the stock will likely cross the $10 threshold once and for all, and start moving towards the price targets.
