F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Receives “Neutral” Rating from Piper Sandler

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by research analysts at Piper Sandler in a research report issued 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 target price would suggest a potential upside of 0.23% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays upped their price target on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $185.10.

F5 Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $166.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $187.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.82. F5 has a twelve month low of $129.93 and a twelve month high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.72%. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.70 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the 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 directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 203.5% in the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,052,000 after acquiring an additional 324,886 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP boosted its stake in F5 by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after purchasing an additional 212,784 shares during the period. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its stake in F5 by 3,545.5% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 172,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,874,000 after purchasing an additional 168,232 shares during the period. 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.