Fisher Asset Management LLC Has $6.69 Million Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Fisher Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,384 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 1,554 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $6,691,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in F5 by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in F5 by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after acquiring an additional 45,843 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $250.07 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $228.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $252.30.

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

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039 over the last quarter. Corporate 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.