Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target increased by Barclays from $246.00 to $296.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.38.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $300.46 on Wednesday. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $308.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $258.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $226.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

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

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in F5 by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.0% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $572,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of F5 by 2.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. 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.