F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $253.62 and last traded at $252.14, with a volume of 479566 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $250.35.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays boosted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted 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. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Trading Up 0.7 %

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $230.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase 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 buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.0% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in F5 by 2.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during 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.