Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $246.00 to $304.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 0.84% from the stock’s previous close.

FFIV has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $259.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in F5 by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,040 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,589,000 after purchasing an additional 3,345 shares during the period. Banque Pictet & Cie SA acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $4,670,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 33,063 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,452,000 after buying an additional 5,062 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 457.6% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,899,000 after buying an additional 25,748 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.