F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $212.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $185.00 to $212.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on FFIV. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $204.56.

F5 Stock Down 1.1 %

FFIV opened at $219.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $12.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52 week low of $145.45 and a 52 week high of $223.74. The business’s 50 day moving average is $198.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $184.54.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that F5 will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at $6,617,437.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,885,390.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 7,871 shares of company stock valued at $1,508,705 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in F5 in the second quarter valued at about $66,000. Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its holdings in F5 by 13.5% in the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 13,681 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in F5 by 4.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $688,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in F5 by 1.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 45,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,896,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the second quarter valued at about $592,000. Hedge funds and other 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.