Oak Thistle LLC Takes Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,345 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Lyrical Asset Management LP grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after buying an additional 317,263 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $292,001,000 after buying an additional 212,784 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after purchasing an additional 131,341 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. boosted its stake in F5 by 72.6% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 298,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,446,000 after purchasing an additional 125,635 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $171.18. 370,890 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 493,812. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $142.16 and a 52 week high of $199.49. The firm has a market cap of $10.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $179.42.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 17.91%. The business had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.70 earnings per share. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $185.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $85,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,608 shares in the company, valued at $5,373,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total transaction of $273,832.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,801 shares in the company, valued at $23,002,118.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $85,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,373,360. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,766 shares of company stock worth $2,016,700. Company insiders own 0.58% 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.