F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Rating Lowered to "Buy" at StockNews.com

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays decreased their price objective on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.2%

FFIV opened at $286.26 on Thursday. F5 has a 1-year low of $164.45 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The company has a market cap of $16.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $266.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $266.97.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. F5's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,305 shares of company stock worth $2,561,360 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in F5 by 34,698.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $198,661,000 after purchasing an additional 743,945 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of F5 by 598.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $106,944,000 after acquiring an additional 364,372 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 6.2% in the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,387,700 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,434,583,000 after acquiring an additional 312,415 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in shares of F5 by 110.4% in the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 560,493 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $149,242,000 after purchasing an additional 294,050 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

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.

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