F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Sets New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $260.00 to $310.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. F5 traded as high as $309.47 and last traded at $286.70, with a volume of 40735 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $269.72.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on FFIV. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the 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 $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted 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 valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in F5 by 1,132.1% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $259.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $227.07. The stock has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

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

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

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.