Vanguard Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 131,341 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 12.64% of F5 worth $1,330,872,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 56.4% in the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $167.00 price objective (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $185.10.

F5 Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $169.52 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.16 and a twelve month high of $199.49. The company has a market cap of $9.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $172.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $179.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 17.91%. The business had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.70 EPS. F5’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,315 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.46, for a total value of $558,444.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,283,790.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,266 shares of company stock valued at $1,931,700 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% 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.