Chase Investment Counsel Corp Invests $4.73 Million in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 21,463 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,726,000. F5 makes up about 1.6% of Chase Investment Counsel Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 0.5 %

FFIV stock opened at $244.00 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $220.16 and its 200 day moving average is $192.96. The stock has a market cap of $14.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $158.22 and a 1-year high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 10.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares in the company, valued at $6,123,221.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.