BNP Paribas Financial Markets Raises Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 110,539 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,908 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in F5 were worth $24,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in F5 by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,292 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,224,000 after purchasing an additional 811 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after acquiring an additional 14,541 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 130.6% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 10,019 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,899,000 after acquiring an additional 5,674 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $299,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in shares of F5 by 55.6% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 57,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $10,775,000 after purchasing an additional 20,486 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 over the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Up 0.1 %

FFIV stock opened at $250.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $229.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $198.92. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $252.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.