F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Releases Q3 2024 Earnings Guidance

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) issued an update on its third quarter 2024 earnings guidance on Monday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 2.890-3.010 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 3.090. The company issued revenue guidance of $675.0 million-$695.0 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $694.8 million. F5 also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 12.520-12.750 EPS.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV traded down $2.36 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $164.26. 287,138 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 467,602. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $187.01 and a 200-day moving average of $176.75. F5 has a 52 week low of $130.34 and a 52 week high of $199.49. The stock has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.14.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The business had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.70 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $185.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company 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.