Bank of Montreal Can Acquires 11,525 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 11,525 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in F5 were worth $53,247,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in F5 during the first quarter worth $27,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in F5 by 49.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on FFIV. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $204.56.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 7,871 shares of company stock valued at $1,508,705 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $219.65 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $12.80 billion, a PE ratio of 26.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $145.45 and a 52 week high of $223.74. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $197.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $184.11.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $686.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.46 EPS. F5’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current year.

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.