F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $264.73 and last traded at $263.81, with a volume of 20914 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $262.30.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $239.33.

F5 Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average of $252.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $219.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.56, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 5,635 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $971,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth $339,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in F5 by 21.5% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,011 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $863,000 after acquiring an additional 887 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in F5 by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.