XTX Topco Ltd Acquires New Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,175 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $547,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of F5 by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,415,294,000 after purchasing an additional 29,154 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 38.3% in 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 buying an additional 317,263 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $200,994,000 after buying an additional 6,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 14.2% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 625,734 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $118,607,000 after acquiring an additional 77,611 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 0.5 %

FFIV opened at $220.38 on Tuesday. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $145.45 and a 12-month high of $222.40. The company has a market cap of $12.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.39, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $195.48 and its 200 day moving average is $183.64.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The firm had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 1,420 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.76, for a total value of $283,659.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,610,262.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 7,271 shares of company stock worth $1,378,205 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.