Evercore ISI Increases F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $270.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target raised by investment analysts at Evercore ISI from $240.00 to $270.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “in-line” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price points to a potential upside of 1.59% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $246.00.

F5 Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $265.78 on Friday. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $267.74. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $252.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $219.96. The stock has a market cap of $15.58 billion, a PE ratio of 27.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. Sell-side 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 repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’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 sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 5,635 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $971,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of F5 by 21.5% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,011 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $863,000 after acquiring an additional 887 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after buying an additional 48,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of F5 by 59.5% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,258 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $733,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589 shares in the last quarter. 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.