The Goldman Sachs Group Increases F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $212.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price boosted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $185.00 to $212.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price points to a potential downside of 4.26% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their price objective on F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $204.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded up $1.06 on Tuesday, hitting $221.44. The stock had a trading volume of 93,919 shares, compared to its average volume of 514,627. F5 has a twelve month low of $145.45 and a twelve month high of $222.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.55, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $195.48 and a 200 day moving average of $183.64.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The business’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that F5 will post 10.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total transaction of $88,100.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,481,229.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,271 shares of company stock valued at $1,378,205 over the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 49.7% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.