F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Neutral Rating at Piper Sandler

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $167.00 price objective on the network technology company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $187.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective points to a potential downside of 8.31% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $204.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $188.11.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $182.13 on Tuesday. F5 has a 12-month low of $129.93 and a 12-month high of $199.49. The company has a 50 day moving average of $187.66 and a 200-day moving average of $176.72. The firm has a market cap of $10.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.12, for a total transaction of $94,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,790 shares in the company, valued at $6,012,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 203.5% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $78,052,000 after buying an additional 324,886 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP grew its stake in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after acquiring an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 13.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $292,001,000 after acquiring an additional 212,784 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of F5 by 3,545.5% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 172,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,874,000 after purchasing an additional 168,232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.