F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) PT Raised to $241.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target upped by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from $212.00 to $241.00 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 suggests a potential downside of 0.29% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 10.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $23.34 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $241.70. 1,649,682 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 525,192. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $148.10 and a fifty-two week high of $250.46. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $211.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $188.60. The firm has a market cap of $14.17 billion, a PE ratio of 28.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that F5 will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,083,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total value of $163,996.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,083,360. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth about $61,386,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 49.8% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 424,249 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $73,046,000 after acquiring an additional 141,040 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.