F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, The Goldman Sachs Group Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price boosted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $212.00 to $241.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.7 %

F5 stock opened at $232.20 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.53 billion, a PE ratio of 24.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 12 month low of $149.40 and a 12 month high of $250.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $214.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $189.96.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that F5 will post 10.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,700 shares of company stock worth $1,170,702 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in F5 by 424.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,442,000 after buying an additional 6,153 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at $1,479,000. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 60.7% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,083 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,239,000 after acquiring an additional 6,451 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,247,000 after acquiring an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,170,000 after buying an additional 14,541 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.