F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $233.56.

FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $250.35 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $229.41 and a 200 day moving average of $198.92. The company has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $252.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in F5 by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,292 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,224,000 after purchasing an additional 811 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after buying an additional 14,541 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 130.6% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 10,019 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,899,000 after buying an additional 5,674 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $299,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in F5 by 55.6% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 57,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,775,000 after acquiring an additional 20,486 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.