F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,503 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 345 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.08% of F5 worth $10,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of F5 by 0.4% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 309,466 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $67,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth $262,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 11.4% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 7,148 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,574,000 after buying an additional 732 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 16.6% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 6,722 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,480,000 after buying an additional 955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth about $235,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible 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 value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $251.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50-day moving average of $230.67 and a 200 day moving average of $200.39. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $253.62.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

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.