Barclays PLC Buys 16,654 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 11.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 161,226 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,654 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned about 0.28% of F5 worth $40,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays increased their price objective on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of F5 from $310.00 to $269.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $289.67.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $258.61 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $275.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $258.73.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,232 shares of company stock valued at $5,310,131 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.