F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Gets Price Target Increase from Royal Bank Of Canada

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada raised F5’s price target from $508 to $525 while maintaining an “outperform” rating, implying approximately 10.66% upside from the current price.
• F5 recently exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $4.73 in earnings per share versus the $4.00 consensus and revenue of $865.08 million, up 10.9% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed overall: F5 has five Buy, five Hold, and one Sell rating, resulting in a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $426.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $508.00 to $525.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "outperform" rating on the network technology company's stock. Royal Bank Of Canada's target price points to a potential upside of 10.66% from the stock's current price.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of F5 from $386.00 to $397.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $426.00.

F5 Trading Down 1.1%

FFIV stock opened at $474.44 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $418.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $384.11. F5 has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $484.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $834.60 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. The company's revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.16 earnings per share. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that F5 will post 13.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Maddison sold 204 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.24, for a total transaction of $82,872.96. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,149 shares in the company, valued at $466,769.76. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Fountain sold 1,208 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.63, for a total transaction of $500,873.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $3,341,917.80. This trade represents a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 16,829 shares of company stock worth $6,815,302. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in shares of F5 in the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 963.6% in 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 in the last quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in F5 in the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in F5 by 373.1% in the second quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position 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 last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About F5

F5, Inc develops application delivery, security and management technologies that help organizations deploy, protect and optimize applications across data centers, public clouds, edge environments and distributed networks. Its offerings are designed to support application availability, performance, scalability and security across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.

The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP application delivery and security solutions, NGINX web and application delivery technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.