F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Director Alan Higginson Sells 825 Shares

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Alan Higginson also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, September 9th, Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $2.55 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $244.57. 198,154 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 533,003. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.63, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $225.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $195.83. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. 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 company earned $2.76 EPS. Analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan 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 buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research 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 stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

Institutional Trading of F5

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter worth about $274,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 424.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,442,000 after acquiring an additional 6,153 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 12,379 shares during the last quarter. Natixis raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 6,852 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,299,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,415,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.