Bank of America Downgrades F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) to Underperform

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) was downgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $160.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $165.00. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 6.83% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of F5 in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of F5 from $173.00 to $160.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price target on shares of F5 from $162.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of F5 from $143.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $167.75.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $149.77 on Thursday. F5 has a one year low of $127.05 and a one year high of $167.89. The company has a 50-day moving average of $157.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $150.11. The stock has a market cap of $8.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.04.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The network technology company reported $3.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.21 by $0.29. F5 had a net margin of 14.04% and a return on equity of 19.14%. The company had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $701.44 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.82 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Ana Maria White sold 170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.24, for a total value of $26,560.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 38,656 shares in the company, valued at $6,039,613.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Ana Maria White sold 170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.24, for a total value of $26,560.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 38,656 shares in the company, valued at $6,039,613.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 2,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.49, for a total transaction of $353,078.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 103,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,635,109.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 8,968 shares of company stock worth $1,442,292. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 10,957 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,597,000 after acquiring an additional 383 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in F5 during the first quarter valued at about $257,000. State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.1% during the second quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 19,688 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,880,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co. boosted its holdings in F5 by 16.2% during the second quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 18,670 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,731,000 after acquiring an additional 2,602 shares during the period. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 7.1% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,781 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,134,000 after buying an additional 515 shares during the period. 89.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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 multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions enable its customers to develop, deploy, operate, secure, and govern applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.