F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Breaks Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average - What's Next?

Key Points

• F5 shares broke above their 200-day moving average, trading as high as $461.49 and last changing hands at $458.53, about 1% higher. The stock’s market capitalization is approximately $25.97 billion.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: five analysts rate F5 a Buy, five a Hold and one a Sell, producing an overall “Hold” rating and a consensus price target of $416.62. JPMorgan raised its target to $515, while Piper Sandler increased its target to $461.
• F5 exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting adjusted EPS of $4.73 versus the $4.00 consensus and revenue of $865.08 million versus $834.60 million; revenue grew 10.9% year over year. Insiders sold $6.8 million of stock over the last quarter, while institutional investors own 90.66% of shares.

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) shares passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $378.96 and traded as high as $461.49. F5 shares last traded at $458.53, with a volume of 377,619 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FFIV. Zacks Research lowered F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and set a $461.00 price target (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $416.62.

F5 Stock Up 1.0%

The company has a 50 day moving average of $412.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $378.96. The firm has a market cap of $25.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.51, a PEG ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. The company had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.16 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. Research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total value of $1,559,848.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at $60,624,143.16. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Michael F. Montoya sold 4,426 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $536,899.44. This trade represents a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 16,829 shares of company stock worth $6,815,302. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 2.6% during the first quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Management Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,447 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $419,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Optas LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 3,718 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,076,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,128 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $885,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,287 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $372,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

About F5

F5, Inc develops application delivery, security and management technologies that help organizations deploy, protect and optimize applications across data centers, public clouds, edge environments and distributed networks. Its offerings are designed to support application availability, performance, scalability and security across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.

The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP application delivery and security solutions, NGINX web and application delivery technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.

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