F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives $237.11 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $237.11.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $255.63 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.74, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $244.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.78. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock valued at $644,889. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in F5 by 9.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,245,000 after purchasing an additional 45,843 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 19,588 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,374,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of F5 by 10.8% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 25,968 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,472,000 after buying an additional 2,527 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in F5 by 25.4% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 314,719 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $54,204,000 after acquiring an additional 63,804 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its position in F5 by 56.4% in the second quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,902 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,878,000 after acquiring an additional 3,931 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.