abrdn plc Sells 2,702 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

abrdn plc lessened its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 11.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,740 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,702 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in F5 were worth $5,221,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $84,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 0.3 %

F5 stock opened at $306.60 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $310.14. The stock has a market cap of $17.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $265.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $233.06.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan 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 plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at $7,915,557.12. This represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,899 shares of company stock worth $1,682,977. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.