Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 56.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 142,066 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 51,024 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.24% of F5 worth $31,283,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 424.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,442,000 after purchasing an additional 6,153 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $53,247,000 after buying an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $4,170,000 after buying an additional 14,541 shares during the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $4,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. 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. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $233.56.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on FFIV
In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. The trade was a 1.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 in the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
NASDAQ FFIV opened at $238.36 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $250.46. The stock has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a PE ratio of 24.93, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $222.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.27.
F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.
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.
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