F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Bought by Banque Cantonale Vaudoise

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 21.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,494 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,311,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,415,294,000 after acquiring an additional 29,154 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth about $274,000. Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $851,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 424.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,442,000 after buying an additional 6,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its holdings in F5 by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 125,999 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $23,893,000 after buying an additional 12,379 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $239.67 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $224.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $195.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $250.46.

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

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,750 shares of company stock worth $799,229 in the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted 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. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

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.