F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $310.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective raised by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $260.00 to $310.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 3.80% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on FFIV. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.38.

F5 Stock Up 10.7 %

NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $28.94 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $298.66. 1,501,362 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 588,268. The firm has a market cap of $17.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $256.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $226.03. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.00.

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

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $99,000. Savant Capital LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $615,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $360,000. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $1,683,000. 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.