F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Reaches New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) shares hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $260.00 and last traded at $257.92, with a volume of 510161 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $257.14.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $233.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $202.67. The company has a market cap of $15.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.98, a PEG ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,475 shares of company stock valued at $775,389 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in F5 by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,247,000 after buying an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its stake in F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,730 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in F5 by 14.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,532,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in F5 by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after purchasing an additional 45,843 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.