F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $21.97 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $240.33. 3,007,533 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 531,689. The company has a market capitalization of $14.09 billion, a PE ratio of 28.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52-week low of $148.10 and a 52-week high of $250.46. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $212.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $188.96.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that F5 will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in F5 by 2.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 6.3% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.