Morgan Stanley Raises F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $230.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target upped by Morgan Stanley from $215.00 to $230.00 in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target 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. StockNews.com cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Trading Up 10.1 %

F5 stock opened at $240.33 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.09 billion, a PE ratio of 28.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 12-month low of $148.10 and a 12-month high of $250.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $212.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $188.96.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The business had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 10.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

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

Institutional Trading of F5

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,415,294,000 after buying an additional 29,154 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in F5 by 10.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 48.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 14.2% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 625,734 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $118,607,000 after buying an additional 77,611 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.