Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price target lifted by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $280.00 to $305.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the network technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 0.94% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $304.00 target price (up previously from $269.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $291.44.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $302.17 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.35 billion, a PE ratio of 28.67, a PEG ratio of 3.84 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $290.88 and a 200 day moving average of $279.41. F5 has a one year low of $170.21 and a one year high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total transaction of $514,728.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,251,360.96. The trade was a 29.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,660 shares in the company, valued at $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,408,594. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 954 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $240,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC increased its position in F5 by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 685 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $172,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its position in F5 by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,805 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in F5 by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,834 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $540,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management increased its position in F5 by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 451 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $120,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.