Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "equal weight" rating on the network technology company's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective indicates a potential upside of 0.85% from the company's current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $237.11.

F5 Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of F5 stock traded down $3.56 on Tuesday, hitting $259.80. The stock had a trading volume of 508,198 shares, compared to its average volume of 534,092. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $264.50. The company's 50 day moving average price is $239.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $207.16. The stock has a market cap of $15.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

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

F5 declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock worth $775,389. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in F5 in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 49.7% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.