Morgan Stanley Raises F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $312.00

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley raised its target price for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) from $305.00 to $312.00, maintaining an "equal weight" rating on the stock.
• F5's shares climbed 5.9% on Thursday, reaching a price of $316.70 during mid-day trading.
• The company's recent quarterly earnings report revealed earnings per share of $4.16, exceeding expectations by $0.67, along with a year-over-year revenue increase of 12.2%.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) had its target price raised by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $305.00 to $312.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "equal weight" rating on the network technology company's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective suggests a potential downside of 1.48% from the company's current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wolfe Research began coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays set a $321.00 target price on F5 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Up 5.9%

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded up $17.71 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $316.70. 934,539 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 541,760. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $293.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.66. F5 has a 1-year low of $184.80 and a 1-year high of $334.00. The firm has a market cap of $18.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.36 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,660 shares in the company, valued at $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total value of $514,728.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,376 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,251,360.96. This trade represents a 29.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,219 shares of company stock worth $2,064,692 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,387,700 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,434,583,000 after buying an additional 312,415 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $402,536,000 after purchasing an additional 30,367 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $316,814,000 after purchasing an additional 37,354 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 15.5% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,054,701 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $280,835,000 after purchasing an additional 141,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 24.0% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 828,966 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $220,693,000 after purchasing an additional 160,708 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

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.

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