Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C Purchases Shares of 1,720 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C purchased a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,720 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $296,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the second 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. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in F5 by 49.8% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 424,249 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $73,046,000 after buying an additional 141,040 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Down 1.1 %

FFIV opened at $219.00 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $12.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.23, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $198.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $184.54. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $145.45 and a 1-year high of $223.74.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on F5 from $185.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $204.56.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at $6,617,437.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 7,871 shares of company stock worth $1,508,705 over the last 90 days. 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.