Citigroup Inc. Sells 29,279 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Citigroup Inc. reduced its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 18.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 131,434 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 29,279 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc. owned 0.23% of F5 worth $28,942,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $248.74 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $227.29 and its 200 day moving average is $197.64. The stock has a market cap of $14.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.02, a PEG ratio of 3.34 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved 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 typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Company 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.