Analysts Set F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target at $282.56

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $282.56.

FFIV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total transaction of $514,728.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,251,360.96. This trade represents a 29.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total transaction of $488,067.84. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $314,689.04. The trade was a 60.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,891 shares of company stock worth $2,418,732 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in F5 by 134.1% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 275.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Groupe la Francaise acquired a new stake in F5 during the first quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Flaharty Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the first quarter worth about $35,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $281.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.18 billion, a PE ratio of 28.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5 has a 1 year low of $164.45 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $268.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $269.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

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.