F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from $204.00 to $182.00. The stock had previously closed at $182.13, but opened at $162.25. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. F5 shares last traded at $165.96, with a volume of 464,497 shares traded.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on FFIV. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $167.00 price target (down previously from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $185.10.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,173,653.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total value of $1,203,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Commerce Bank increased its stake in F5 by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 1,912 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors increased its position in shares of F5 by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 1,150 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 518 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 36.1% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of F5 by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 10,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,872,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

F5 Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $187.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.72.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The company’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.70 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.