Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective hoisted by Barclays from $246.00 to $296.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $297.26 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $260.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $227.89. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $308.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its board has approved a share buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 783.3% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 318 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 282 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased 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 worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.