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

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $237.11.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insider Activity 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 directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock worth $644,889. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $701,825,000 after buying an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.5% in 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 buying an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after buying an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Down 0.4 %

F5 stock opened at $251.47 on Wednesday. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $264.50. The company has a market cap of $14.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.30, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $245.42 and its 200 day moving average is $212.68.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly 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. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock 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 buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.