F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after StockNews.com upgraded the stock from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $250.46 and last traded at $249.59, with a volume of 516250 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $218.36.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total value of $163,996.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,083,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,359,543.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,083,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698 over the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 6.3% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $14.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $212.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $188.96.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $695.50 million for 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 revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.