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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $233.56.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in F5 by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its position in F5 by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 6.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of F5 stock opened at $250.35 on Friday. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $252.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $229.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $198.92.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in 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 typically a sign that the company’s board 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.