D.A. Davidson & CO. Sells 2,477 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 33.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,971 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,477 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,095,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $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 worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 in the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $250.35 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $14.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $252.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $230.04 and a 200 day moving average of $199.66.

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

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