F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 1-Year High at $206.02

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $206.02 and last traded at $205.99, with a volume of 315717 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $202.91.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.89.

F5 Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $12.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $190.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.58.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. F5’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.46 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,885,390.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 7,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,463,205. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in F5 by 6,700.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP grew its position in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,937,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after buying an additional 214,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.