F5, Inc. (FFIV) – What Are Analysts Thinking About This Stock?

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $443.00.

FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of F5 from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $461.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded F5 from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday.

Key Stories Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5’s board authorized a $1.5 billion share-repurchase program, which could support demand for shares. The company also recently beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, with revenue up 13.2% year over year.
• Neutral Sentiment: An article noted recent options-market activity in FFIV but did not specify whether trading was bullish or bearish, so its significance is unclear. Do Options Traders Know Something About F5 Stock We Don’t?
• Negative Sentiment: Seven F5 executives and insiders sold roughly $7.2 million in shares in transactions dated November 3–4, including the CFO, CTOs and EVPs. The sales could create near-term concern, though they were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, which can reduce their significance as a signal about executives’ views of the company. Insider Selling: F5 CFO Sells Shares

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $310.84 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $421.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $364.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.81, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.07. F5 has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $483.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $884.03 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.39 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that F5 will post 14.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, EVP Angelique Okeke sold 1,007 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.06, for a total transaction of $326,328.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 2,862 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $927,459.72. This represents a 26.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Maddison sold 619 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.06, for a total value of $200,593.14. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $507,477.96. This trade represents a 28.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 26,478 shares of company stock valued at $9,077,136 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aberdeen Group plc lifted its position in F5 by 279.6% in the third quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 44,990 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $20,029,000 after buying an additional 33,139 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of F5 by 6.7% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 831 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Altar Rock LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $216,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of F5 by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 186,758 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $82,432,000 after purchasing an additional 24,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its position in F5 by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 3,616 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,610,000 after acquiring an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.