Needham & Company LLC Boosts F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target to $360.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $285.00 to $360.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective points to a potential upside of 19.41% from the company’s current price.

FFIV has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler lifted 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price 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, StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.38.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $301.48 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.54, a P/E/G 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 fifty day moving average price is $259.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $227.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS 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 business 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 company earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 purchase 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 stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related 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 transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $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 is available at this link. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 65.6% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 2,219 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 879 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 2nd quarter worth $592,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in F5 by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 45,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $7,896,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of F5 by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $688,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $66,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.