F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,218 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 107 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $709,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 49.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Vinland Capital Management Gestora de Recursos LTDA. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $2,132,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Monarch Capital Management Inc. grew its position in F5 by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,507 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,843,000 after buying an additional 248 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,475 shares of company stock worth $775,389. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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, Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $263.36 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $238.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $206.52. The company has a market capitalization of $15.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.55, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board 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.