F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) PT Raised to $235.00 at Needham & Company LLC

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective upped by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $220.00 to $235.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.40% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on FFIV. Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.89.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $203.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $172.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $179.43. The stock has a market cap of $11.94 billion, a PE ratio of 24.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.08. F5 has a 1 year low of $145.45 and a 1 year high of $205.92.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.30%. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that F5 will post 9.64 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 1,420 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.76, for a total value of $283,659.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,610,262.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $85,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,373,360. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 1,420 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.76, for a total transaction of $283,659.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,610,262.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,335 shares of company stock worth $2,131,981. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its holdings in F5 by 38.3% during the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after buying an additional 317,263 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $45,937,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in F5 by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,330,872,000 after purchasing an additional 131,341 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. increased its position in F5 by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 298,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $53,446,000 after purchasing an additional 125,635 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 625,734 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $118,607,000 after purchasing an additional 77,611 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.