F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 12-Month High on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $260.00 to $310.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. F5 traded as high as $309.47 and last traded at $286.70, with a volume of 40735 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $269.72.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on FFIV. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.38.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $84,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $17.61 billion, a PE ratio of 31.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $258.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $226.55.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.