F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $295.00.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total value of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,915,557.12. This represents a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $326,000. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter worth about $587,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $402,536,000 after buying an additional 30,367 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in F5 by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 27,170 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,833,000 after acquiring an additional 3,526 shares during the period. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 213.5% during the 4th quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 3,853 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $969,000 after acquiring an additional 2,624 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $310.60 on Thursday. F5 has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $310.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.02 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a PEG ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s 50-day moving average is $268.87 and its 200 day moving average is $235.46.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.