F5’s (FFIV) “Neutral” Rating Reiterated at Piper Sandler

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Piper Sandler in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $167.00 target price on the network technology company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $187.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 8.31% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Barclays upped their price objective on F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $188.11.

F5 Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $182.13 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.71 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. F5 has a twelve month low of $129.93 and a twelve month high of $199.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $187.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.72.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total value of $91,155.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 27,477 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,428,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in F5 by 41.3% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,821,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 3,981 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $642,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in F5 by 12.4% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 214,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $34,562,000 after acquiring an additional 23,681 shares during the period. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth $201,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.