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

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $295.00.

FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total value of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,915,557.12. The trade was a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $606,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 650,992 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $163,705,000 after acquiring an additional 116,785 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 92.1% during the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 3,734 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $939,000 after acquiring an additional 1,790 shares during the period. State of Wyoming lifted its position in shares of F5 by 951.6% in the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,651 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $415,000 after acquiring an additional 1,494 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Global Advisors LLC now owns 6,496 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,634,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $309.93 on Thursday. F5 has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $274.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $239.51. The firm has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81, a PEG ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management 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.