Sanctuary Advisors LLC Makes New $192,000 Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 871 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the third 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 buying an additional 191,020 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position 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 buying an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.0% in 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 buying an additional 117,080 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $237.11.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $255.63 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $264.50. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $244.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock valued at $644,889. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.