F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Consensus Rating of "Hold" by Analysts

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $282.56.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating 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 for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total value of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This trade represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. The trade was a 0.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,370,959 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $281,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 457.6% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $7,899,000 after buying an additional 25,748 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in F5 by 18.1% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 33,063 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $8,452,000 after buying an additional 5,062 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in F5 by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,040 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $13,589,000 after buying an additional 3,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in F5 by 1,132.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Down 0.7%

FFIV traded down $2.11 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $286.48. 376,115 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 561,603. The company has a market cap of $16.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.00. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $277.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $273.41. F5 has a 1 year low of $167.35 and a 1 year high of $313.00.

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