Royal Bank of Canada Issues Positive Forecast for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target lifted by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $260.00 to $310.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 3.80% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.38.

F5 Trading Up 10.7 %

FFIV traded up $28.94 on Wednesday, reaching $298.66. The stock had a trading volume of 1,501,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 588,268. The company has a market cap of $17.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $308.00. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $256.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $226.03.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

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.