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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $186.82.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of F5 from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $179.59 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $188.11 and a 200-day moving average of $175.30. F5 has a one year low of $127.05 and a one year high of $199.49. The company has a market cap of $10.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.11.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The company had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $684.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that F5 will post 9.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total transaction of $90,045.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,674,275.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,747,364.48. 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 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total transaction of $90,045.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,508 shares in the company, valued at $5,674,275.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,705. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in F5 by 36.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Company Profile

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.