F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $185.10.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.11, for a total transaction of $243,759.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,906,495.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total value of $89,405.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.11, for a total transaction of $243,759.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,906,495.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,316 shares of company stock valued at $1,742,867. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after buying an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in F5 by 13.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after acquiring an additional 212,784 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in F5 by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after acquiring an additional 131,341 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. increased its position in F5 by 72.6% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 298,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,446,000 after acquiring an additional 125,635 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $172.31 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $170.49 and its 200-day moving average is $179.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.08. F5 has a 12-month low of $142.16 and a 12-month high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.70 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About F5

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company's distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.