F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $251.25.

FFIV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $272.99 on Friday. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $274.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $255.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $224.38.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in F5 by 2.0% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $572,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in F5 by 2.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust lifted its position in shares of F5 by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.