Key Points
- F5 EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 9,387 shares for about $3.10 million, reducing his holdings by 53.8%; the sale was made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan.
- F5 beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting EPS of $4.42 and revenue of $917.43 million, up 13.2% year over year. The board also authorized a $1.5 billion share buyback.
- Seven F5 insiders sold shares totaling about $7.2 million in early November, while analysts’ consensus rating was Hold with an average price target of $443.
F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) CFO Edward Werner sold 599 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.06, for a total value of $194,111.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 2,851 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $923,895.06. This trade represents a 17.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
F5 Price Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $311.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.07. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $483.30. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $423.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $363.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.59.
F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $884.03 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.39 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.
F5 declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 27th that permits the company to buy back $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5
Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Mather Group LLC. grew its stake in F5 by 2.5% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,365 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $608,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 3,718 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,076,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $915,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board lifted its stake in F5 by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board now owns 1,733 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GraniteShares Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 1,021 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $525.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen raised F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on F5 from $415.00 to $448.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $443.00.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on FFIV
Key Headlines Impacting F5
Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:
- Negative Sentiment: Seven insiders, including F5’s CFO, CTOs and EVPs, sold shares in transactions dated November 3–4. The sales totaled about $7.2 million; several executives reduced their individual holdings substantially. The cluster of sales may weigh on sentiment, although the pre-arranged plans temper the signal. See the SEC filings: Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More. and Read More..
About F5
(
Get Free Report)
F5, Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.
The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.
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