StockNews.com Downgrades F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) to Buy

StockNews.com downgraded shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report released on Tuesday morning.

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

F5 Stock Up 2.1 %

FFIV opened at $210.31 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $190.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $182.58. F5 has a twelve month low of $145.45 and a twelve month high of $210.81. The company has a market capitalization of $12.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The business had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.46 EPS. F5’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that F5 will post 10.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total transaction of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total transaction of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total transaction of $88,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,481,229.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,771 shares of company stock worth $1,463,205. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,415,294,000 after purchasing an additional 29,154 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its stake in F5 by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in F5 by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,122,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $200,994,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is 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.