Townsquare Capital LLC Takes Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Townsquare Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,032 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’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 owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $254.13 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $254.97. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $231.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $200.93. The firm has a market cap of $14.90 billion, a PE ratio of 26.58, a P/E/G ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.06.

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

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

F5 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.