JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $250.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $225.00 to $250.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 3.98% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.33.

F5 Stock Up 10.1 %

Shares of FFIV traded up $22.07 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $240.43. 1,321,286 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 523,621. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $211.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $188.60. F5 has a twelve month low of $148.10 and a twelve month high of $250.46. The stock has a market cap of $14.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that F5 will post 10.17 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total transaction of $163,996.21. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,083,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.71, for a total value of $163,996.21. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,083,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,359,543.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 6,551 shares of company stock worth $1,334,698 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.