F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives $237.11 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $237.11.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,875 shares of company stock worth $644,889. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in F5 by 9,100.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Denver PWM LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the second quarter worth about $56,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV traded up $1.79 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $256.20. 172,640 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 533,752. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $264.50. The company has a market capitalization of $15.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.80, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The business's 50-day moving average price is $243.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $210.53.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign 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.