F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives $251.25 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $251.25.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th.

F5 Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $272.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $255.88 and its 200-day moving average is $224.38. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $274.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.56, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 7.1% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 5,635 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $971,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of F5 by 8.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of F5 by 59.5% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,258 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $733,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the second quarter valued at about $547,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 7.5% in the second quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 2,027 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $349,000 after buying an additional 142 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.