F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 52-Week High at $206.02

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)’s share price hit a new 52-week high 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 Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $200.89.

F5 Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $188.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.25.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.46 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $85,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,373,360. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $85,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,608 shares in the company, valued at $5,373,360. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,463,205 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

About F5

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.