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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $282.56.

A number of research firms have weighed in on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays dropped their target price 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, Wall Street Zen lowered F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,558,159.80. This represents a 6.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total value of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,075 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,577 shares of company stock valued at $2,926,029. 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. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 24.0% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 828,966 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $220,693,000 after purchasing an additional 160,708 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in F5 by 288.1% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 74,641 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $19,875,000 after purchasing an additional 5,382 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth bought a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $257,000. Finally, Flaharty Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth $35,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 1.6%

NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $4.49 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $286.59. 306,716 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 569,929. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $267.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $268.33. F5 has a 1-year low of $164.45 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a PE ratio of 28.49, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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.