Coldstream Capital Management Inc. Buys Shares of 920 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Coldstream Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 920 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FFIV. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 0.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Vinland Capital Management Gestora de Recursos LTDA. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $2,132,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, Monarch Capital Management Inc. increased its stake 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $259.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $239.11 and a 200-day moving average of $207.16. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $264.50. The company has a market cap of $15.23 billion, a PE ratio of 27.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 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 company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note 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. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $237.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’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 sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock valued at $775,389. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.