F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective upped by Morgan Stanley from $262.00 to $310.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.38.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $300.46 on Wednesday. F5 has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $308.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $258.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $226.55. The firm has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a PE ratio of 31.43, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

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

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $701,825,000 after buying an additional 16,663 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in F5 by 24.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in F5 by 7.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,124 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.