F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $262.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $237.11.

F5 Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $250.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $240.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.77. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $264.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock worth $644,889 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in F5 by 9,100.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 49.7% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.