F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $320.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 20.72% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on F5 from $304.00 to $262.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $285.22.

F5 Trading Down 1.8 %

FFIV opened at $265.07 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.35, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $268.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $261.30. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,232 shares of company stock worth $5,310,131 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 954 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $240,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 685 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $172,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of F5 by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 852 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $214,000 after buying an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank grew its stake in F5 by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 7,869 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,987,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in F5 by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.