F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the nine research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $282.56.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total transaction of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 17,504 shares of company stock worth $5,088,492. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in F5 by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $90,090,000 after buying an additional 81,005 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 457.6% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $7,899,000 after acquiring an additional 25,748 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 194,820 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $48,991,000 after purchasing an additional 7,341 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 36.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $539,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 163.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 80,013 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $20,121,000 after purchasing an additional 49,629 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $3.04 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $268.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 514,304 shares, compared to its average volume of 576,803. The company has a market cap of $15.50 billion, a PE ratio of 26.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $266.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $261.65. F5 has a 52 week low of $163.12 and a 52 week high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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.