F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, The Goldman Sachs Group Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $257.00 to $295.00 in a report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the network technology company’s stock.

FFIV has been the subject of several other research reports. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $297.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $17.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $260.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $227.89. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $308.00.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in F5 in the second quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently 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.