Simon Quick Advisors LLC Acquires 243 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 17.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,633 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after purchasing an additional 16,663 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in F5 by 48.9% in 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in F5 by 24.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $272.91 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $255.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $223.32. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $273.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.55, a PEG ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $251.25.

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.