F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, The Goldman Sachs Group Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective hoisted by equities research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $257.00 to $295.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target suggests a potential downside of 2.15% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.38.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $308.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $259.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $227.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.