F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $274.00 Price Target at Barclays

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) had its target price lowered by Barclays from $296.00 to $274.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the network technology company's stock.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $3.04 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $268.81. 514,304 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 575,721. The business's fifty day moving average is $265.90 and its 200-day moving average is $262.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5 has a one year low of $164.45 and a one year high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at $314,689.04. This trade represents a 60.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,251 shares of company stock valued at $5,013,285 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Forum Financial Management LP raised its position in F5 by 20.7% during the first quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 1,461 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $389,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 199,246 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $53,053,000 after purchasing an additional 41,780 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 30.8% during the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 497 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its position in F5 by 15.5% during the first quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 2,067 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $550,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,393,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.