F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Price Target Lowered to $182.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its price objective decreased by Royal Bank of Canada from $204.00 to $182.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Barclays reduced their target price on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $167.00 target price (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $185.10.

F5 Stock Down 9.2 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $165.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $187.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.72. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $129.93 and a fifty-two week high of $199.49. The stock has a market capitalization 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.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced 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. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The business had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.70 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total value of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total value of $91,155.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,886,789.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 203.5% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,052,000 after purchasing an additional 324,886 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP raised its stake in shares of F5 by 38.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 13.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 3,545.5% during 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 in the last quarter. 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.