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

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) had its target price lifted by Piper Sandler from $246.00 to $304.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company's stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $299.38.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock traded up $1.02 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $301.48. 919,215 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 656,481. The stock has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $308.00. The firm's 50 day moving average is $258.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $226.55.

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

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in F5 by 1,132.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in F5 by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,040 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $13,589,000 after purchasing an additional 3,345 shares during the last quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA acquired a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,670,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in F5 by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 33,063 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $8,452,000 after purchasing an additional 5,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 457.6% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $7,899,000 after purchasing an additional 25,748 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.