F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.22 EPS

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) released its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22, Briefing.com reports. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis.

F5 Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of F5 stock traded down $3.50 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $236.83. 343,905 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 530,795. F5 has a 52-week low of $149.40 and a 52-week high of $250.46. The company has a fifty day moving average of $212.57 and a 200-day moving average of $188.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 31,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the completion of 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 6,551 shares of company stock valued at $1,334,698 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

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.