F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Down 31.2% in December

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,480,000 shares, a decline of 31.2% from the November 30th total of 2,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 581,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock worth $644,889 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $237.11.

F5 Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $3.15 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $252.48. The company had a trading volume of 253,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 530,044. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $244.73 and a 200 day moving average of $212.09. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

F5 Company 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.