William Blair Comments on F5, Inc.’s Q3 2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:FFIV)

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) – Analysts at William Blair reduced their Q3 2024 EPS estimates for F5 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, April 30th. William Blair analyst J. Ader now anticipates that the network technology company will post earnings of $2.21 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $2.37. The consensus estimate for F5’s current full-year earnings is $9.62 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for F5’s Q1 2025 earnings at $2.58 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $2.40 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $2.61 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.87 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $10.47 EPS.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 17.91%. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.70 EPS.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.10.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $165.94 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $186.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.87, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.14. F5 has a one year low of $130.34 and a one year high of $199.49.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 36.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,886,789.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,052 shares of company stock valued at $2,050,633. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.