F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives $282.56 Average Price Target from Analysts

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from the ten analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $282.56.

A number of analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Barclays decreased their target price on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total value of $514,728.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,376 shares in the company, valued at $1,251,360.96. This represents a 29.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,408,594 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 134.1% during the 1st quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 275.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the period. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Groupe la Francaise bought a new position in shares of F5 during the first quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Down 2.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $8.00 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $291.89. The company had a trading volume of 451,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 564,519. The stock has a market cap of $16.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 1.00. The company's 50 day moving average price is $288.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $277.94. F5 has a 52-week low of $170.21 and a 52-week high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.18%. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.