Ritholtz Wealth Management Takes Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 974 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 1,090 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of F5 by 34.4% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 170,905 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $42,977,000 after buying an additional 43,782 shares during the period. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $1,081,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its stake in F5 by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 12,596 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $3,168,000 after acquiring an additional 723 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $272.08 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $15.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $272.50. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $254.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.98.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FFIV. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their target price 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $251.25.

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.