MQS Management LLC Makes New Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 2,655 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $457,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $547,000. Sienna Gestion boosted its position in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sienna Gestion now owns 37,083 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,384,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 63.2% in the second quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 7,320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,261,000 after purchasing an additional 2,834 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 49.8% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 424,249 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $73,046,000 after purchasing an additional 141,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in F5 by 59.5% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $733,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $217.47 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $192.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $183.11. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $145.45 and a 1 year high of $218.54.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The firm had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on FFIV. StockNews.com lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total transaction of $249,327.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,462 shares in the company, valued at $20,885,390.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total value of $88,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,481,229.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 7,271 shares of company stock worth $1,378,205. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.