Private Advisor Group LLC Invests $338,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,535 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $338,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,415,294,000 after buying an additional 29,154 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 625,734 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $118,607,000 after acquiring an additional 77,611 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $240.12 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.36, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $154.11 and a one year high of $250.46. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $216.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $190.82.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 10.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 in the last 90 days. 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.