Stifel Financial Corp Sells 244 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Stifel Financial Corp trimmed its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 8.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,503 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 244 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $551,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new stake in F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $53,247,000 after purchasing an additional 11,525 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd boosted its position in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,730 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of F5 by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,532,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of F5 by 9.6% in 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 owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s 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 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock worth $644,889. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $237.11.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $257.12 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $264.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $243.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $210.85.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share 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%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.