F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $185.10.

FFIV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Barclays dropped their price target on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $167.00 price target (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $85,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,373,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $85,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,373,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,316 shares of company stock valued at $1,742,867. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Lyrical Asset Management LP raised its stake in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 13.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after purchasing an additional 212,784 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after purchasing an additional 131,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 298,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,446,000 after purchasing an additional 125,635 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $172.31 on Wednesday. F5 has a 52-week low of $142.16 and a 52-week high of $199.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a PE ratio of 20.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.08. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $170.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $179.38.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its 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. F5 had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 17.91%. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.64 EPS for the current fiscal 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.