F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, The Goldman Sachs Group Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective hoisted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $212.00 to $241.00 in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on FFIV. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays lifted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $233.88 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $214.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $189.62. F5 has a 1-year low of $149.40 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.63 billion, a PE ratio of 24.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 10.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,123,221.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 5,700 shares of company stock valued at $1,170,702. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth $61,386,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 48.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after buying an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in F5 by 49.8% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 424,249 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $73,046,000 after acquiring an additional 141,040 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.