Dark Forest Capital Management LP Invests $523,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 3,037 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $523,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Commerce Bank raised its position in shares of F5 by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 1,912 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in F5 by 0.6% in the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,885,390.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,871 shares of company stock worth $1,508,705 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $204.56.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV stock opened at $219.00 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $145.45 and a 1 year high of $223.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.23, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $198.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $184.54.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $686.06 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.46 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.