F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $250.00 Price Target at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price hoisted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $225.00 to $250.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on FFIV. Barclays boosted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $232.20 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $214.78 and a 200-day moving average of $189.96. The firm has a market cap of $13.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a twelve month low of $149.40 and a twelve month high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during 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 firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that F5 will post 10.91 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,359,543.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,700 shares of company stock valued at $1,170,702. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Covestor Ltd grew its position in shares of F5 by 17.0% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 862 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $190,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Olympiad Research LP boosted its stake in F5 by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Olympiad Research LP now owns 1,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $338,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,002 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $19,818,000 after buying an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in F5 by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,057 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $893,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.1% during 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 buying an additional 18,739 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.