Van ECK Associates Corp Lowers Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Van ECK Associates Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 54.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 11,878 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 13,934 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,987,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $701,825,000 after purchasing an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 7.7% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,101,000 after purchasing an additional 27,124 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of FFIV opened at $304.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.56 billion, a PE ratio of 30.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $274.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $239.96. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $313.00.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

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.