Piper Sandler Increases F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $304.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price raised by Piper Sandler from $246.00 to $304.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has assigned 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 a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $297.26 on Wednesday. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $308.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $260.25 and a 200-day moving average of $227.89. The company has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.