Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV – Free Report) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 90,002 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,614 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.15% of F5 worth $19,818,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 60.7% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,083 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,239,000 after buying an additional 6,451 shares during the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its position in shares of F5 by 5.0% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 67,014 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $12,705,000 after acquiring an additional 3,186 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 26.2% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 68,578 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $13,002,000 after acquiring an additional 14,235 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its position in F5 by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in F5 by 178.7% during the 1st quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 5,574 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,057,000 after purchasing an additional 3,574 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’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 $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.
View Our Latest Research Report on F5
F5 Stock Performance
F5 stock opened at $242.05 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $250.46. The business has a fifty day moving average of $221.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $193.68.
F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 10.99 EPS for the current year.
F5 declared that its board has authorized a stock 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.
F5 Company Profile
(Free Report)
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.
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