Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. Increases Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 30.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 266,443 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,937 shares during the quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. owned about 0.45% of F5 worth $67,002,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 1,681.1% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $62,898,000 after acquiring an additional 269,602 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $35,090,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 11.4 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $300.46 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $258.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $226.55. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.