Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective lifted by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $240.00 to $260.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 2.22% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $239.33.

F5 Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of FFIV opened at $254.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.61, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $214.72. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in F5 by 36.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $539,000 after buying an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in F5 by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,002 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $19,818,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in F5 by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,101,000 after purchasing an additional 27,124 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 376,215 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $82,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,554 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.