F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given New $260.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target lifted by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $240.00 to $260.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price points to a potential upside of 2.22% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $239.33.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV opened at $254.36 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $248.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $214.72. F5 has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $264.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, 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 1.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was 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 directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 39,473 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,798,000 after purchasing an additional 3,049 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 4.9% during the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in F5 by 5.2% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 16,579 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,855,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in F5 by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 16,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,764,000 after acquiring an additional 3,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Denver PWM LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.