F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Issues Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.14 EPS

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV – Get Rating) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The network technology company reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.33 by $0.14, RTT News reports. F5 had a net margin of 11.95% and a return on equity of 17.67%. The firm had revenue of $700.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $700.59 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.89 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

F5 Trading Down 0.9 %

F5 stock traded down $1.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $146.47. 860,732 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 565,277. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $133.68 and a fifty-two week high of $225.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.69, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $147.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $151.35.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 8,505 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.26, for a total transaction of $1,294,971.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 113,335 shares in the company, valued at $17,256,387.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 2,493 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.16, for a total transaction of $351,911.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,460 shares in the company, valued at $2,041,173.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 8,505 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.26, for a total transaction of $1,294,971.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 113,335 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,256,387.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,521 shares of company stock worth $3,747,727. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,830,286 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,427,188,000 after purchasing an additional 96,873 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 19.8% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,075,970 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $224,824,000 after purchasing an additional 178,042 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 14.7% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 714,798 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $149,358,000 after purchasing an additional 91,580 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 452,043 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $94,454,000 after purchasing an additional 16,974 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 394,157 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $82,367,000 after purchasing an additional 5,214 shares during the period. 93.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 13th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of F5 to $155.00 in a report on Thursday, October 20th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $164.00 to $159.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 17th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $169.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $175.33.

About F5

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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 multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions enable its customers to develop, deploy, operate, secure, and govern applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.