F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Raised to $260.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price raised by Bank of America from $180.00 to $260.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on FFIV. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $297.26 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $260.25 and a 200-day moving average of $228.54. F5 has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.24 billion, a PE ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,726,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after buying an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,532,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 36.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $539,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addenda Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 43.5% in the 4th quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 50,314 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $12,652,000 after acquiring an additional 15,240 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.