F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $347.47 and last traded at $345.4580, with a volume of 75480 shares. The stock had previously closed at $341.02.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $355.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of F5 from $283.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $316.44.

F5 Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $295.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $273.70. The stock has a market cap of $19.50 billion, a PE ratio of 28.30, a PEG ratio of 7.86 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $783.82 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Angelique M. Okeke sold 842 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total transaction of $271,401.86. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 2,110 shares in the company, valued at approximately $680,116.30. This trade represents a 28.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total transaction of $1,006,636.59. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 12,194 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,930,492.02. This trade represents a 20.39% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 19,577 shares of company stock worth $5,762,036. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC raised its position in F5 by 51.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 310,368 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $100,308,000 after purchasing an additional 105,738 shares during the period. Convergence Investment Partners LLC raised its position in F5 by 128.1% in the 3rd quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,931 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,563,000 after purchasing an additional 4,454 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in F5 by 217.7% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 229,591 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $74,142,000 after purchasing an additional 157,318 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its position in F5 by 173.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 8,200 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,650,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in F5 by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 381,350 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $123,249,000 after purchasing an additional 39,445 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Company Profile

F5 Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) specializes in application services and delivery networking, helping organizations ensure the availability, performance and security of their applications. The company’s core offerings include advanced load balancing, traffic management and application security solutions designed to optimize user experiences and protect against threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and web application exploits.

At the heart of F5’s product portfolio is the BIG-IP platform, which provides a suite of software modules for local and global traffic management, secure web application firewalling and DNS service delivery.