F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.22 EPS

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) released its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22, Briefing.com reports. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock traded up $0.38 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $240.71. The company had a trading volume of 131,745 shares, compared to its average volume of 529,784. F5 has a 1-year low of $149.40 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $188.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.11 billion, a PE ratio of 28.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,083,360. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,551 shares of company stock valued at $1,334,698 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Company Profile

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.