Abacus Planning Group Inc. Invests $235,000 in Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Jabil Inc. (NYSE:JBL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,630 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JBL. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Jabil by 12,251.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,206,384 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $264,391,000 after acquiring an additional 2,188,521 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 580,100 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Jabil by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,116,308 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $613,087,000 after acquiring an additional 520,672 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in Jabil by 595.5% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 343,137 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,118,000 after acquiring an additional 293,801 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Jabil by 29.0% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 574,938 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $68,895,000 after acquiring an additional 129,400 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.39% of the company’s stock.

Jabil Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:JBL opened at $169.03 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $156.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $132.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Jabil Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $95.85 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $6.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.61 billion. Jabil had a net margin of 4.71% and a return on equity of 41.87%. Jabil’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Jabil Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Jabil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. Jabil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.07%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Jabil news, EVP Frederic E. Mccoy sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.81, for a total transaction of $599,240.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 138,472 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,744,490.32. This trade represents a 2.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Steven A. Raymund sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.30, for a total transaction of $3,026,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 119,108 shares in the company, valued at $18,021,040.40. This trade represents a 14.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 77,400 shares of company stock worth $12,804,458. Company insiders own 1.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Jabil from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Jabil from $136.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 target price (up previously from $150.00) on shares of Jabil in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Jabil from $157.00 to $179.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Jabil from $128.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Jabil presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $153.17.

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).