Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Buys 732 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 11.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,148 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 732 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,574,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in F5 by 49.7% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $250.07 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $228.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $198.57. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $252.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

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.