UBS rates EMS companies

UBS Warburg on Thursday said it started coverage of several electronics manufacturing services companies with a mixture of "buy", "hold" and "sell" ratings, saying that while it is netural on the sector, it likes certain stocks.It started Flextronics International Ltd. (NasdaqNM:FLEX - News) at a "buy" with a $13 price target and expectations of earnings of 31 cents per share in fiscal 2003. It said it believes its Asia-centric business is most leveraged to take advantage of an economic recovery.UBS put a "reduce" rating on Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE:JBL - News) and a target price of $16.50 based on expectations for fiscal 2003 earnings of 63 cents per share. It said that its current valuations are too high and it expects the shares to fall.It started Celestica Inc. (Toronto:CLS.TO - News), Sanmina-SCI Corp.(NasdaqNM:SANM - News), Solectron Corp. (NYSE:SLR - News) and Plexus Corp. (NasdaqNM:PLXS - News) with "hold" ratings. UBS said it started Benchmark Electronics Inc. (NYSE:BHE - News) with a "buy" rating.In morning trading, Flextronics shares were up 2.6 percent at $9.72 on Nasdaq, Jabil was up 2.7 percent at $19.71 on the New York Stock Exchange, and Celestica was up 38 Canadian cents at C$24.70 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Sanmina was up 2.7 percent at $4.22 and Plexus was up 1.3 percent at $12.86, both on Nasdaq. Solectron was up 1.3 percent at $3.82 and Benchmark was up 1.4 percnet at $28.78, on the New York Stock Exchange.Source: Reuters