F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Hits New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $267.96 and last traded at $267.74, with a volume of 381906 shares. The stock had previously closed at $263.95.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $251.25.

F5 Trading Up 0.3 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a PE ratio of 28.55, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $255.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $223.32.

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

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $84,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.