F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stake Lifted by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 361.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 35,178 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 27,547 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $7,746,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Aurora Investment Counsel bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $1,666,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 1.3% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 318,788 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,197,000 after purchasing an additional 4,069 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $1,428,000. Commerce Bank grew its stake in shares of F5 by 3.2% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 2,485 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $271,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was 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 approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,575 shares of company stock worth $997,039. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $244.57 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $196.17.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on FFIV. Evercore ISI increased their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

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.