F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Purchased by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 361.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,178 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,547 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC owned 0.06% of F5 worth $7,746,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.9% during the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 6.3% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV opened at $244.57 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day moving average of $225.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $196.17. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its 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. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business 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 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has approved 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 4,575 shares of company stock worth $997,039. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.