F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Moved Down to "Hold" by Wolfe Research

Key Points

• Wolfe Research downgraded F5 to “Hold” from “Strong Buy,” while the broader analyst consensus also remains “Hold,” with seven Hold, four Buy, and one Sell rating and an average price target of $443.
• F5 reported quarterly earnings of $4.42 per share, exceeding estimates of $4.26, while revenue rose 13.2% year over year to $917.43 million, above expectations.
• The company authorized a $1.5 billion stock repurchase plan; institutional investors own 90.66% of outstanding shares, while insiders have sold approximately $5.26 million of stock over the past 90 days.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wolfe Research from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Zacks reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of F5 from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $443.00.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $363.46 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $20.58 billion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $429.42 and a 200 day moving average of $362.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.73. F5 has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $483.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The company had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $884.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.39 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that F5 will post 14.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to buy back $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John Maddison sold 204 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.24, for a total transaction of $82,872.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,149 shares in the company, valued at $466,769.76. This trade represents a 15.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total value of $1,559,848.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $60,624,143.16. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,829 shares of company stock worth $5,259,502. Insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super lifted its position in shares of F5 by 450.1% during the 3rd quarter. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super now owns 42,807 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $19,057,000 after buying an additional 35,025 shares during the last quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC increased its position in F5 by 5.8% during the third quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 1,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $244,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 68.2% in the 3rd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 25,531 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $11,337,000 after acquiring an additional 10,353 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $10,587,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc NASDAQ: FFIV provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.

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