F5 Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:FFIV)

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 2,087 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 372% compared to the typical volume of 442 call options.

F5 Trading Up 11.4 %

Shares of F5 stock opened at $300.46 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $258.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $226.55. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.38.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $84,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.