F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $285.00 to $360.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the network technology company's stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target points to a potential upside of 21.11% from the company's previous close.
Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $295.00.
View Our Latest Report on FFIV
F5 Stock Down 1.4 %
F5 stock traded down $4.22 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $297.26. The company's stock had a trading volume of 681,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 577,746. The company has a market cap of $17.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $260.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $228.21. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $308.00.
F5 declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.
Insider Activity at F5
In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company's stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Institutional Trading of F5
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in F5 by 65.6% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,219 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 879 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $592,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 45,848 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $7,896,000 after buying an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its holdings in F5 by 4.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,994 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $688,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in F5 in the second quarter worth $66,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.
F5 Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
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.
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