F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $260.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price increased by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $240.00 to $260.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “sector perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 3.15% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $239.33.

F5 Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $252.07. 69,222 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 234,655. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $247.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $213.81. The firm has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.37, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in F5 in the third quarter worth $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in F5 by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,247,000 after buying an additional 11,525 shares in the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd grew its holdings in F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,730 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of F5 by 14.3% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,532,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 10.1% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 204,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $45,032,000 after acquiring an additional 18,739 shares during the last quarter. 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.