Barclays Raises F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $296.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price increased by investment analysts at Barclays from $246.00 to $296.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would suggest a potential downside of 1.82% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

F5 Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of FFIV opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s fifty day moving average is $259.25 and its 200 day moving average is $227.07. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $308.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its board 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 buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,726,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of F5 by 14.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,532,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 36.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $539,000 after buying an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addenda Capital Inc. increased its holdings in F5 by 43.5% in the 4th quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 50,314 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,652,000 after buying an additional 15,240 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.