Axa S.A. Raises Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Axa S.A. increased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 832.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,133 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,832 shares during the period. Axa S.A.’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the second quarter worth about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the first quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 49.7% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $220.20 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $199.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.62. The stock has a market cap of $12.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $145.45 and a 1-year high of $223.74.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.39. F5 had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 19.94%. The company had revenue of $695.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FFIV. Piper Sandler upped their target price on F5 from $167.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $204.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total value of $249,327.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,885,390.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’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 in the company, valued at $5,481,229.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 7,871 shares of company stock worth $1,508,705. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.