Mather Group LLC. Invests $174,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Mather Group LLC. acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 971 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $174,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after acquiring an additional 131,341 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 13.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after acquiring an additional 212,784 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP boosted its position in F5 by 38.3% during the fourth quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after acquiring an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in F5 by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,122,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $200,994,000 after acquiring an additional 6,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its position in F5 by 6.4% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 748,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $120,552,000 after acquiring an additional 44,758 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 price target (down previously from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $185.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total transaction of $142,568.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total value of $273,832.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,801 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,002,118.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total transaction of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,266 shares of company stock valued at $1,931,700 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $169.74 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.16 and a 12-month high of $199.49. The company has a market capitalization of $9.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $172.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $179.42.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 Company Profile

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.