F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given “Outperform” Rating at William Blair

William Blair restated their outperform rating on shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,RTT News reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on F5 from $304.00 to $262.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $262.72 on Tuesday. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $313.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $267.55 and a 200-day moving average of $261.31.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,232 shares of company stock valued at $5,310,131 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 281,418 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $74,933,000 after purchasing an additional 26,105 shares in the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 38.1% in the first quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 1,349 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $359,000 after buying an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 7.4% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 12,519 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,333,000 after buying an additional 858 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth about $240,000. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 1.8% during the first quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 12,319 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,280,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.