F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,320,000 shares, an increase of 9.4% from the October 15th total of 2,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 603,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days. Approximately 4.0% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,750 shares of company stock valued at $799,229 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.7 %

F5 stock opened at $239.99 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $223.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $194.99. The stock has a market cap of $13.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.05. F5 has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $250.46.

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

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.