F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $295.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $257.00 to $295.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 2.15% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.38.

F5 Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $308.00. The company has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $259.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $227.07.

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

F5 announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.