F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Given Neutral Rating at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reissued their neutral rating on shares of F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $167.00 price target on the network technology company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $187.00.

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

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $165.31 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $187.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $176.72. F5 has a 1-year low of $129.93 and a 1-year high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. F5’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.70 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total transaction of $89,405.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total transaction of $89,405.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter worth $38,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 56.4% in the 4th quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is 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.