F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Brokerages

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the nine analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $233.56.

FFIV has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594. Insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Norden Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter worth $317,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in F5 by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,362 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,965,000 after acquiring an additional 642 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of F5 by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 89,906 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $17,045,000 after acquiring an additional 19,746 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 10.2% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 5,796 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,099,000 after acquiring an additional 537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,155 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $409,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded up $1.77 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $232.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 284,629 shares, compared to its average volume of 535,522. F5 has a one year low of $152.97 and a one year high of $250.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $215.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $190.43. The stock has a market cap of $13.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5 will post 10.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are 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.