Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Lowers Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 18.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 984 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 229 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $247,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its stake in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $701,825,000 after purchasing an additional 16,663 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 8.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in F5 by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,101,000 after buying an additional 27,124 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Down 1.4 %

FFIV stock opened at $297.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $260.25 and a 200-day moving average of $227.89. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $308.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. 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 report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently 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.