F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $416.62.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $406.35 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.93 billion, a PE ratio of 32.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.03. F5 has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $435.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $401.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $335.32.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. The company had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $834.60 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.16 earnings per share. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that F5 will post 13.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $399.35, for a total value of $399,350.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,947 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,975,584.45. This represents a 16.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Nikhil Ramesh Mehta sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $388.95, for a total transaction of $1,555,800.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,043 shares in the company, valued at $2,739,374.85. This trade represents a 36.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 15,200 shares of company stock worth $5,651,328 over the last three months. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $579,699,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of F5 by 15,103.5% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $298,709,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162,519 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 68.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $702,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119,291 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $205,706,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of F5 by 175.2% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $244,781,000 after acquiring an additional 610,437 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

About F5

F5 Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) specializes in application services and delivery networking, helping organizations ensure the availability, performance and security of their applications. The company’s core offerings include advanced load balancing, traffic management and application security solutions designed to optimize user experiences and protect against threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and web application exploits.

At the heart of F5’s product portfolio is the BIG-IP platform, which provides a suite of software modules for local and global traffic management, secure web application firewalling and DNS service delivery.