F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Holdings Raised by Venturi Wealth Management LLC

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 79.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $70,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. boosted 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 worth $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in F5 by 6.3% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $242.05 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $250.46. The firm has a market cap of $14.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $221.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $193.68.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 10.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.