7,420 Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Acquired by ING Groep NV

ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,420 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,866,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in F5 by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. The trade was a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057 in the last three months. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Trading Down 3.0 %

FFIV stock opened at $295.56 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $275.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $241.47. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $313.00.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in 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 a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

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.