JPMorgan Chase & Co. Has $90.09 Million Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 24.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 0.70% of F5 worth $90,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in F5 in the third quarter worth approximately $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 1,681.1% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $62,898,000 after acquiring an additional 269,602 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $251.75 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $247.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $213.81. The stock has a market cap of $14.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.33, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FFIV. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $237.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.