F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Down 19.5% in June

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,400,000 shares, a decline of 19.5% from the May 31st total of 2,980,000 shares. Approximately 4.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 520,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,315 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.46, for a total transaction of $558,444.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,283,790.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total value of $89,405.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,594,964.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,315 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.46, for a total value of $558,444.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,283,790.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,766 shares of company stock valued at $2,016,700. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Lyrical Asset Management LP boosted its position in shares of F5 by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,937,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 13.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after purchasing an additional 212,784 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after acquiring an additional 131,341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of F5 by 72.6% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 298,612 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,446,000 after purchasing an additional 125,635 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $1.31 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $172.49. 49,251 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 490,191. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $142.16 and a fifty-two week high of $199.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $170.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $179.42. The company has a market cap of $10.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 17.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.70 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (down previously from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $185.10.

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.