F5's (FFIV) "Buy (B)" Rating Reaffirmed at Weiss Ratings

Key Points

• F5's stock received a reaffirmed "buy (B)" rating from Weiss Ratings, indicating strong confidence from analysts in the company's outlook.
• The latest earnings report revealed that F5's EPS was $4.16, significantly beating expectations set at $3.49, and the company reported a 12.2% year-over-year revenue growth.
• Key institutional investors have shown increased interest, with Norges Bank acquiring a new stake valued at approximately $207.5 million, signaling positive market sentiment.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy (b)" rating reissued by stock analysts at Weiss Ratings in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

FFIV has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research began coverage on F5 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $342.58 on Wednesday. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $321.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $294.54. F5 has a 52-week low of $213.24 and a 52-week high of $343.84. The firm has a market cap of $19.68 billion, a PE ratio of 30.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $3.36 EPS. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.240-15.380 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 3.870-3.990 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 2,701 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.57, for a total transaction of $855,055.57. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,601,963.84. This represents a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,945 shares of company stock valued at $3,796,542. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $207,492,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,387,700 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,434,583,000 after purchasing an additional 312,415 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in F5 by 110.4% in the 1st 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 during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 659.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 316,992 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $84,405,000 after purchasing an additional 275,244 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 37.5% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 828,900 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $216,757,000 after purchasing an additional 226,231 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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