F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Reaches New 12-Month High at $216.72

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) shares reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $216.72 and last traded at $215.89, with a volume of 50401 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $213.57.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $200.89.

F5 Stock Up 0.8 %

The company has a market capitalization of $12.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $193.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $183.35.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,271 shares of company stock worth $1,378,205 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,415,294,000 after purchasing an additional 29,154 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP grew its holdings in F5 by 38.3% during the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in F5 by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,122,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $200,994,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 6,700.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

F5 Company Profile

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.