F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Sets New 52-Week High – Here’s Why

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $267.96 and last traded at $267.74, with a volume of 381906 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $263.95.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of several recent research reports. 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, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $251.25.

F5 Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $254.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $222.63. The stock has a market cap of $15.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in F5 during the second quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.