F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $295.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $257.00 to $295.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 1.4 %

FFIV opened at $297.26 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $260.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $227.89. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $308.00. The company has a market cap of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % 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 company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $382,000 after acquiring an additional 879 shares during the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the second quarter worth $592,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of F5 by 1.4% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 45,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,896,000 after buying an additional 621 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of F5 by 4.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $688,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $66,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.