Piper Sandler Increases F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $304.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective hoisted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $246.00 to $304.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 0.84% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

F5 Trading Up 0.3 %

FFIV stock opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.54, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $308.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $259.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $227.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $94,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. 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.