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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the nine research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $295.00.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at $7,915,557.12. The trade was a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $310.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $18.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $268.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $235.46. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $310.77.

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