Creative Planning Boosts Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Creative Planning grew its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 8.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,342 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in F5 were worth $956,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 49.7% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $273,107.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,022 shares in the company, valued at $23,359,543.70. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $273,107.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,359,543.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,700 shares of company stock worth $1,170,702 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. 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 report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.7 %

FFIV stock opened at $232.20 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $214.78 and its 200 day moving average is $189.96. The stock has a market cap of $13.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.40 and a 1-year high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 10.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication 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.