F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy”

StockNews.com cut shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $200.89.

F5 Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $191.99 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $173.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $179.70. F5 has a 52 week low of $145.45 and a 52 week high of $205.92. The company has a market cap of $11.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.99, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The business’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.46 earnings per share. Analysts expect that F5 will post 10.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, insider Pelzer Frank 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $85,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,373,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Pelzer Frank 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The disclosure for this trade can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,885 shares of company stock valued at $1,888,222. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in F5 in the second quarter worth $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the first quarter worth $38,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.