F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $250.46 and last traded at $249.24, with a volume of 111775 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $246.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Down 0.7 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $228.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $198.20. The company has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a PE ratio of 26.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value 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 represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by 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.