F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.22 EPS

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) issued its earnings results on Monday. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22, Briefing.com reports. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

F5 Stock Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $3.47 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $236.86. The stock had a trading volume of 358,659 shares, compared to its average volume of 530,865. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $212.57 and a 200 day moving average of $188.96. The company has a market capitalization of $13.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a one year low of $149.40 and a one year high of $250.46.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,083,360. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,083,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total value of $98,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.