Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price cut by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $352.00 to $336.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 29.85% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on FFIV. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on F5 from $355.00 to $277.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen downgraded F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.56.

F5 Stock Down 3.3%

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $258.76 on Tuesday. F5 has a 12-month low of $227.04 and a 12-month high of $346.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $317.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $299.85.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.43. F5 had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 22.42%.The business had revenue of $810.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $794.06 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.67 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.500-15.500 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.850 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,601,963.84. This trade represents a 18.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $320.61, for a total value of $416,793.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 107,553 shares in the company, valued at $34,482,567.33. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,945 shares of company stock worth $3,796,542. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Private Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in F5 during the first quarter worth about $469,000. Vestcor Inc grew its holdings in F5 by 689.3% during the first quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 7,364 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,961,000 after purchasing an additional 6,431 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 17.4% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 9,622 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,428 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Management LLC bought a new position in F5 during the second quarter worth about $240,000. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 15.4% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,477 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $5,438,000 after purchasing an additional 2,461 shares during the period. 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.