Venturi Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 79.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 573 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $404,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $295.56 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $275.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $241.08. The company has a market capitalization of $17.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.