F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives $309.89 Consensus PT from Analysts

Key Points

• The average recommendation for F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) from eleven brokerages is a "Hold", with one sell rating, seven hold ratings, and three buy ratings.
• F5's recent earnings report showed a significant surge in earnings per share to $4.16, exceeding estimates by $0.67, and a 12.2% year-over-year increase in revenue.
• Barclays raised its price target for F5 shares from $274 to $321, following similar increases from other analysts, indicating a positive outlook for the stock.

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $309.8889.

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total value of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,919 shares in the company, valued at $2,843,678.11. The trade was a 11.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,520,097. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,475,000. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 13.7% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 414 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $122,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of F5 by 39.6% in the second quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 23,502 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $6,917,000 after acquiring an additional 6,667 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.8% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,060 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $5,021,000 after acquiring an additional 618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $419,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock traded down $4.00 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $317.23. 469,157 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 569,643. The firm's fifty day moving average is $297.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $283.95. The company has a market capitalization of $18.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.03. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $186.19 and a fifty-two week high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. The business had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.36 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share 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.