F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $260.00 at Bank of America

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target hoisted by Bank of America from $180.00 to $260.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an underperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays upped their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $297.26 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $260.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $228.54.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 1,681.1% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $62,898,000 after buying an additional 269,602 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,090,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.