Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

Key Points

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F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Piper Sandler from $304.00 to $355.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on F5 from $280.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays set a $321.00 target price on F5 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price 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 assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded down $5.99 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $307.43. The stock had a trading volume of 790,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 494,142. The company has a market capitalization of $17.66 billion, a PE ratio of 27.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $294.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $282.40. F5 has a 1 year low of $184.80 and a 1 year high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. The business had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.36 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.32, for a total value of $382,616.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 107,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,521,672. This trade represents a 1.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,872 shares of company stock valued at $1,702,309. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 275.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 134.1% in the 1st quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 275.0% in the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Groupe la Francaise acquired a new stake in F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. 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.