Royal Bank of Canada Lowers F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $182.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price reduced by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $204.00 to $182.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 9.23% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.10.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $166.62 on Tuesday. F5 has a 1-year low of $129.93 and a 1-year high of $199.49. The company has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.82.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total value of $89,405.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total value of $89,405.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total transaction of $273,832.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,801 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,002,118.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in F5 by 3.9% in the third 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 during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in shares of F5 by 41.3% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,821,000 after buying an additional 3,300 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 3,981 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $642,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 12.4% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 214,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $34,562,000 after buying an additional 23,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at about $201,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.