F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $262.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective lifted by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 3.97% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $237.11.

F5 Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $252.00 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $239.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $207.48. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $264.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.77 billion, a PE ratio of 26.36, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock worth $775,389 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in shares of F5 by 7.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after buying an additional 27,124 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 376,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $82,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,554 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,825 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,824,000 after purchasing an additional 2,325 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $192,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,531,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by 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.