F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Bank of America Analyst Says

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) had its target price upped by Bank of America from $180.00 to $260.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underperform rating on the network technology company’s stock.

FFIV has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $297.26 on Friday. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $308.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $260.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $227.89. The firm has a market cap of $17.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was 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 Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in F5 by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $701,825,000 after acquiring an additional 16,663 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in F5 by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its position in shares of F5 by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after purchasing an additional 27,124 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.