Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $262.00 to $310.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 2.83% from the company’s previous close.

FFIV has been the topic of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.38.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. F5 has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $308.00. The company has a market capitalization of $17.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $259.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $227.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 79.8% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently 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.