StockNews.com Upgrades F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) to Strong-Buy

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $238.95 on Tuesday. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $149.40 and a fifty-two week high of $250.46. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $213.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.31. The company has a market cap of $14.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that F5 will post 10.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,083,360. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. The trade was 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 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 2.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its position in F5 by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 0.6% in the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.