F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $310.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective hoisted by Royal Bank of Canada from $260.00 to $310.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $297.26 on Wednesday. F5 has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $308.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $260.25 and its 200 day moving average is $227.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a PE ratio of 29.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in shares of F5 by 65.6% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,219 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $382,000 after acquiring an additional 879 shares during the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter worth $592,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 45,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,896,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of F5 by 4.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $688,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the second quarter worth about $66,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.