Atria Investments Inc Cuts Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Atria Investments Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 65.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,466 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,775 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in F5 were worth $323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 48.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after buying an additional 214,351 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of F5 by 8.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after buying an additional 48,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after buying an additional 45,843 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $246.98 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $250.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $226.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.71. The firm has a market cap of $14.48 billion, a PE ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,575 shares of company stock valued at $997,039 over the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

F5 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.