Morgan Stanley Raises F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $415.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective increased by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $380.00 to $415.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 3.36% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on FFIV. Evercore upgraded shares of F5 from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $475.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of F5 from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 target price (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $408.67.

F5 Trading Down 1.6%

F5 stock traded down $6.46 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $401.50. 767,572 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 768,291. The business’s 50 day moving average is $400.80 and its 200 day moving average is $330.81. F5 has a 52 week low of $223.76 and a 52 week high of $435.00. The company has a market capitalization of $22.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.91, a PEG ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a return on equity of 21.50% and a net margin of 21.96%.The business had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.16 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. Equities analysts expect that F5 will post 12.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total transaction of $1,006,636.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 12,194 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,930,492.02. This trade represents a 20.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $162,400. This represents a 86.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 109.8% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 963.6% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 117 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 113.8% during the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 124 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong earnings and revenue beat estimates. F5 reported adjusted EPS of $4.73, well above the roughly $4.00 consensus, while revenue rose 10.9% year over year to $865.1 million versus expectations of approximately $834.6 million. F5 Networks Beats Q3 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Product growth remained particularly strong. Product revenue increased 19%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit product growth. Management said F5’s application and API security offerings are becoming increasingly mission-critical as companies address cybersecurity risks associated with artificial intelligence. F5 Reports Third Quarter Results with 19% Product Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: F5 raised its outlook again. Fiscal fourth-quarter guidance calls for EPS of $4.14-$4.26 and revenue of $870 million-$890 million, ahead of consensus estimates of $3.95 EPS and $858 million revenue. Full-year fiscal 2026 EPS guidance was raised to $17.21-$17.33, versus an analyst consensus near $15.75, while revenue guidance was lifted to approximately $3.4 billion. F5 Raises Annual Revenue Growth Forecast Again
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised forecasts following the results. JPMorgan increased its price target from $500 to $515 and maintained an Overweight rating, offering a favorable signal for investor sentiment. Analysts Increase Forecasts on F5 Following Upbeat Q3 Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed. Barclays raised its target from $386 to $397 but kept an Equal Weight rating, while the reported average analyst target of $382.67 sits below the recent trading level. This suggests some analysts see limited near-term upside after the stock’s substantial rally.

About F5

F5 Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) specializes in application services and delivery networking, helping organizations ensure the availability, performance and security of their applications. The company’s core offerings include advanced load balancing, traffic management and application security solutions designed to optimize user experiences and protect against threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and web application exploits.

At the heart of F5’s product portfolio is the BIG-IP platform, which provides a suite of software modules for local and global traffic management, secure web application firewalling and DNS service delivery.