F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the eight ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $251.25.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $263.95 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $253.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $220.94. F5 has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $267.74. The company has a market capitalization of $15.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06.

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

F5 declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.