F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $295.00 Price Target at The Goldman Sachs Group

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target boosted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $257.00 to $295.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on FFIV. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

F5 Stock Up 11.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $300.46 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $308.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $258.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $226.55.

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

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s 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 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in F5 by 457.6% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Certuity LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $216,000. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $99,000. Savant Capital LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $281,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $615,000. Hedge funds and other 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.