F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives $186.82 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $192.22.

Several brokerages have weighed in on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, February 9th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp raised their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares in the company, valued at $23,173,653.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.8% in the first quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 56,046 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,626,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036 shares in the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of F5 by 49.9% in the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 23,441 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,444,000 after acquiring an additional 7,805 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of F5 by 37.0% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 173,912 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,972,000 after acquiring an additional 47,007 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in F5 by 11.6% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,590 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $491,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $181.85 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.08. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $129.93 and a fifty-two week high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $693.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.77 million. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

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.