Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 1,139 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 4.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 28,746 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,139 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $6,330,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. This represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 4,575 shares of company stock valued at $997,039. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $246.98 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $226.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $196.71. The stock has a market cap of $14.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

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.