Yahoo Finance If You Had Bought Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX) Stock A Year Ago, You'd Be Sitting On A 25% Loss, Today
It's easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. Unfortunately the Flex Ltd. (NASDAQ:FLEX) share price slid 25% over twelve months. That's well bellow the market return of 2.2%. Even if shareholders bought some time ago, they wouldn't be particularly happy: the stock is down 21% in three years. It's down 1.2% in the last seven days.
Check out our latest analysis for Flex
In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.
Unhappily, Flex had to report a 95% decline in EPS over the last year. The share price fall of 25% isn't as bad as the reduction in earnings per share. It may have been that the weak EPS was not as bad as some had feared. Indeed, with a P/E ratio of 239.79 there is obviously some real optimism that earnings will bounce back.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. This free interactive report on Flex's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
A Different Perspective
Flex shareholders are down 25% for the year, but the market itself is up 2.2%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 0.9% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. Investors who like to make money usually check up on insider purchases, such as the price paid, and total amount bought. You can find out about the insider purchases of Flex by clicking this link.
There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
