Brokerages Set F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Target Price at $186.82

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $192.22.

Several research firms have weighed in on FFIV. Barclays raised their price target on F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,701 shares of company stock worth $1,818,660. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 203.5% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,052,000 after purchasing an additional 324,886 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP increased its position in shares of F5 by 38.3% during the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after buying an additional 317,263 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 13.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after buying an additional 212,784 shares during the period. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in F5 by 3,545.5% during the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 172,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,874,000 after acquiring an additional 168,232 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $180.23 on Friday. F5 has a 12 month low of $129.93 and a 12 month high of $199.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.60 billion, a PE ratio of 23.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $187.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $176.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.39. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The company had revenue of $693.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.77 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.