F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $230.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $215.00 to $230.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $233.88 on Tuesday. F5 has a 12-month low of $149.40 and a 12-month high of $250.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $214.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $189.62. The company has a market capitalization of $13.71 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that F5 will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,700 shares of company stock valued at $1,170,702. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. 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.