F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Rating Reiterated by Piper Sandler

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "neutral" rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $167.00 price target on the network technology company's stock, down from their prior price target of $187.00. Piper Sandler's target price would indicate a potential upside of 1.02% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on FFIV. Barclays upped their target price on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $204.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research report on Friday, February 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $185.10.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock traded down $16.82 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $165.31. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,061,308 shares, compared to its average volume of 463,137. F5 has a 52-week low of $129.93 and a 52-week high of $199.49. The firm's 50 day moving average is $187.66 and its 200 day moving average is $176.72. The company has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a PE ratio of 21.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The company had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total value of $89,405.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total transaction of $89,405.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,594,964.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC raised its position in F5 by 36.1% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.