Morgan Stanley Increases F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $310.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $262.00 to $310.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 2.83% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on FFIV. 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 report on Friday, January 3rd. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

F5 Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.00. The company has a market capitalization of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $259.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $227.07.

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

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the second quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.