Freedom Investment Management Inc. Sells 917 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,938 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 917 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 214,351 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $103,096,000 after purchasing an additional 48,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of F5 by 9.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,245,000 after buying an additional 45,843 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.7 %

FFIV stock opened at $250.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $14.66 billion, a PE ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $252.30. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $228.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.20.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its 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 business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by 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.