F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $240.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $205.00 to $240.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $240.33 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $188.96. F5 has a one year low of $148.10 and a one year high of $250.46. The company has a market capitalization of $14.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.46 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that F5 will post 10.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other F5 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,123,221.25. 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 a total of 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in F5 by 10.1% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 204,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,032,000 after buying an additional 18,739 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 25,812 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $5,560,000 after acquiring an additional 1,127 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 116.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 85,657 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $18,862,000 after acquiring an additional 46,086 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of F5 by 14.3% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,532,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth $661,000. 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.