Piper Sandler Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $167.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $187.00. Piper Sandler’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 0.23% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.10.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $166.62 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.82. F5 has a one year low of $129.93 and a one year high of $199.49. The company has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a PE ratio of 19.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.72%. The business had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.70 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.12, for a total transaction of $94,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,012,124.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.12, for a total transaction of $94,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,012,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 27,477 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,428,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of F5 by 41.3% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,821,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 3,981 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $642,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 214,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $34,562,000 after acquiring an additional 23,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth $201,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.