F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $246.00 at Barclays

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target hoisted by Barclays from $214.00 to $246.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

FFIV has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Trading Up 10.1 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $240.33 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $212.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $188.96. The company has a market capitalization of $14.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 1-year low of $148.10 and a 1-year high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.46 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,083,360. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in F5 by 0.6% during the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,186,000 after buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after buying an additional 73 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.