F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Now Rated "Hold" by Sell-Side Brokerages

Key Points

• F5 has a consensus “Hold” rating from 11 analysts, split between five buys, five holds and one sell. The average 12-month price target is $416.62.
• F5 recently exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $4.73 in earnings per share versus the $4.00 consensus estimate and $865.08 million in revenue, up 10.9% year over year.
• Insiders sold 16,829 shares worth approximately $6.8 million over the past 90 days, while institutional investors own a substantial 90.66% of the company.

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $416.62.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $461.00 price target (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings cut F5 from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $60,624,143.16. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Fountain sold 1,208 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.63, for a total transaction of $500,873.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,341,917.80. The trade was a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 16,829 shares of company stock worth $6,815,302 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. CX Institutional increased its position in F5 by 17.7% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 733 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,474 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $613,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 22,144 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $9,211,000 after acquiring an additional 2,814 shares during the period. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 14,091 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $5,861,000 after acquiring an additional 1,341 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter worth about $459,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $458.53 on Tuesday. F5 has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $462.00. The firm has a market cap of $25.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.51, a PEG ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $412.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $378.96.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. The company had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 13.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc develops application delivery, security and management technologies that help organizations deploy, protect and optimize applications across data centers, public clouds, edge environments and distributed networks. Its offerings are designed to support application availability, performance, scalability and security across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.

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

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.