F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $360.00 Price Target at Needham & Company LLC

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price boosted by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $285.00 to $360.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 33.47% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.13.

F5 Stock Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $269.72 on Wednesday. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $274.64. The business has a fifty day moving average of $256.94 and a 200-day moving average of $226.03. The stock has a market cap of $15.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors bought a new stake in F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is 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.