F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday after Evercore ISI lowered their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $180.00. The stock had previously closed at $182.13, but opened at $162.25. Evercore ISI currently has an in-line rating on the stock. F5 shares last traded at $165.96, with a volume of 464,497 shares.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, February 9th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $187.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total value of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commerce Bank grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 1,912 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors increased its position in shares of F5 by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 1,150 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 518 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 36.1% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of F5 by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 10,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,872,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $187.66 and a 200 day moving average of $176.72. The stock has a market cap of $9.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.70 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

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.