Certuity LLC Takes Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Certuity LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 860 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 24.6% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,730 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $381,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 2,788.1% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,213 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,171 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in F5 by 8.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 4,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $956,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $211,000. Finally, Cardinal Capital Management boosted its holdings in F5 by 1.6% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 18,263 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,022,000 after buying an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,399 shares of company stock valued at $3,652,867. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $310.45 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $269.94 and its 200-day moving average is $235.98. The company has a market capitalization of $18.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $312.76.

F5 announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.