Evercore ISI Trims F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Target Price to $180.00

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective trimmed by Evercore ISI from $200.00 to $180.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an in-line rating on the network technology company’s stock.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price 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. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a sector perform rating and set a $204.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, February 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $185.10.

F5 Stock Down 0.1 %

FFIV stock opened at $165.94 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $186.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.67. F5 has a 52 week low of $130.34 and a 52 week high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.70 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.12, for a total value of $94,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,012,124.80. 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 6,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total value of $1,203,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.12, for a total transaction of $94,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,790 shares in the company, valued at $6,012,124.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,052 shares of company stock worth $2,050,633 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after acquiring an additional 131,341 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 212,784 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,122,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $200,994,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its holdings in F5 by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 748,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $120,552,000 after buying an additional 44,758 shares in 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.