Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target boosted by Piper Sandler from $304.00 to $355.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

FFIV has been the subject of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

F5 Trading Up 4.8%

F5 stock opened at $313.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $294.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.06. F5 has a twelve month low of $184.80 and a twelve month high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 22.19%. The company’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.36 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,919 shares in the company, valued at $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 5,872 shares of company stock worth $1,702,309. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 6.2% during the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,387,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,434,583,000 after buying an additional 312,415 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $402,536,000 after purchasing an additional 30,367 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in F5 by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $316,814,000 after buying an additional 37,354 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in F5 by 15.5% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,054,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $280,835,000 after purchasing an additional 141,680 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 24.0% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 828,966 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $220,693,000 after buying an additional 160,708 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.