Convergence Investment Partners LLC Buys Shares of 6,830 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Convergence Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,830 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,718,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 1,681.1% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $62,898,000 after acquiring an additional 269,602 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after buying an additional 191,020 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in F5 in the third quarter valued at about $35,090,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 8.0% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 24.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $307.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $273.09 and a 200-day moving average of $239.01. The company has a market cap of $17.84 billion, a PE ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $313.00.

F5 announced that its board 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 purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FFIV. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

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.