Raymond James Financial Inc. Makes New $16.62 Million Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 66,105 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,623,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned 0.11% of F5 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in F5 by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 852 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $214,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.00.

F5 Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $267.45 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.42 billion, a PE ratio of 26.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $283.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $250.72. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $313.00.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total transaction of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,885,588.50. The trade was a 14.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 16,932 shares of company stock worth $4,965,150. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

About F5

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.