F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $241.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target increased by The Goldman Sachs Group from $212.00 to $241.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays raised their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $233.88 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $214.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $189.62. F5 has a one year low of $149.40 and a one year high of $250.46. The stock has a market cap of $13.63 billion, a price-to-earnings 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 data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 10.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,123,221.25. 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, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,359,543.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,700 shares of company stock worth $1,170,702 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in F5 by 424.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,442,000 after acquiring an additional 6,153 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at $1,479,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 60.7% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,083 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,239,000 after purchasing an additional 6,451 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in F5 by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,247,000 after buying an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in F5 by 195.1% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after buying an additional 14,541 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.