Analysts Set F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target at $309.89

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $309.8889.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st.

F5 Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $321.77 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $298.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $284.40. F5 has a 52 week low of $188.31 and a 52 week high of $334.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.35, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The company had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.36 earnings per share. F5’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,843,678.11. This trade represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total transaction of $417,206.31. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,411,101.27. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,097 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 20,249 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares during the period. Aviva PLC boosted its stake in F5 by 602.3% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 37,414 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $9,408,000 after purchasing an additional 32,087 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in F5 by 76.2% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 110,393 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,790,000 after purchasing an additional 47,738 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $121,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 36.5% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,383 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,108,000 after buying an additional 2,242 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.