F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $253.62 and last traded at $252.14, with a volume of 479566 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $250.35.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the subject of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $230.04 and a 200-day moving average of $199.84.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current 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 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 49.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.