Electronics contract manufacturer Jabil on Thursday beat Wall Street's targets for its fiscal second quarter and offered an improved outlook for the current period. But Jabil stock fell on the news.
The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company earned an adjusted $1.88 a share on sales of $8.13 billion in the quarter ended Feb. 28. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Jabil earnings of $1.85 a share on sales of $8.09 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Jabil earnings rose 12% while sales increased 8%.
For the current quarter, Jabil predicted adjusted earnings of $1.90 a share on sales of $8.2 billion. That's based on the midpoint of its outlook. Wall Street was projecting earnings of $1.89 a share on sales of $8.14 billion.
"Our diversified portfolio allowed us to successfully navigate a very dynamic macro environment and deliver robust year-on-year financial results," Chief Executive Mark Mondello said in a news release.
In particular, Jabil noted strength in automotive, health care and industrial products.
Jabil has two business segments: electronics manufacturing services and diversified manufacturing services. The electronics manufacturing unit makes gear for cloud computing, networking, data storage, industrial and other applications. The diversified manufacturing unit makes automotive, health care, mobile and other devices.
Jabil Stock Is On Tech Leaders List
On the stock market today, Jabil stock plummeted as much as 7.7% before clawing its way back. It ended the regular session down 2.4% to 78.37.
Jabil stock has been volatile after recent earnings reports. In the prior quarter, it dropped 5.9% the day of its report.
On Oct. 28, Jabil stock hit a buy point of 65.98 from a cup-with-handle base, according to IBD MarketSmith charts. It hit an all-time high of 85.70 on March 3.
Jabil stock ranks third out of 15 stocks in IBD's electronics contract manufacturing industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. It has an IBD Composite Rating of 96 out of 99. The Composite Rating scores a stock's key growth metrics against all other stocks regardless of industry group.
Also, Jabil stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
Electronics manufacturing services are center stage for a host of growth trends ranging from the reshoring of production to the boom in electric vehicles.
The electronics contract manufacturing industry group ranks No. 70 out of 197 industry groups that IBD tracks.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
