F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Barclays Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Barclays from $246.00 to $296.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the network technology company's stock.

FFIV has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.38.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $30.74 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $300.46. 2,420,256 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 641,580. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $256.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $226.03. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $308.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. On average, analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in F5 by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its holdings in F5 by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.