F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Has Average Price Target of $443.00 According to Brokerages

Key Points

• F5 has a consensus “Hold” rating from 12 analysts, with seven holds, four buys, and one sell; the average 12-month price target is $443.
• The stock opened at $338.34 after a 6.9% decline, while F5’s latest quarter exceeded expectations with $4.42 in earnings per share and $917.43 million in revenue.
• F5 approved a $1.5 billion share-repurchase program, adding to roughly $1.8 billion in total buyback capacity and potentially supporting earnings per share and investor demand.

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $443.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $415.00 to $448.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Zacks Research lowered shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of F5 from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th.

F5 Stock Down 6.9%

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $338.34 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.03. F5 has a 52 week low of $223.76 and a 52 week high of $483.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $428.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $362.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.26 by $0.16. F5 had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. The company had revenue of $917.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $884.03 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.39 earnings per share. F5's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 14.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 authorized an additional $1.5 billion share repurchase program, bringing total available buyback capacity to approximately $1.8 billion, or about 9% of its market value. The authorization could support earnings per share and provide demand for the stock following its sell-off. Share Buyback Program Announced by F5
• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $917 million and adjusted earnings of $4.42 per share, exceeding analyst expectations. AI-related bookings surpassed $100 million and increased roughly 300% year over year, indicating continued demand for AI data-delivery solutions. F5 Beat on Revenue and Still Dropped
• Positive Sentiment: Technical analysts say the stock is now oversold after its recent decline, while upward earnings-estimate revisions could support a potential trend reversal. Morgan Stanley, Barclays and RBC also raised their price targets or maintained a constructive outlook. F5 May See a Trend Reversal
• Positive Sentiment: F5 and Oracle announced a collaboration focused on strengthening application security for AI-era workloads, potentially improving F5’s enterprise and cloud-security opportunities. F5 and Oracle Collaborate

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John Maddison sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $405.85, for a total value of $405,850.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,353 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $549,115.05. This trade represents a 42.50% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total value of $1,559,848.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,624,143.16. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,611,637,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in F5 by 23.9% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 732,219 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $325,969,000 after acquiring an additional 141,131 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in F5 by 24.8% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 726,844 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $302,338,000 after acquiring an additional 144,534 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the second quarter worth about $243,865,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position in F5 by 96.0% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 555,809 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $231,194,000 after purchasing an additional 272,273 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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