DAVENPORT & Co LLC Acquires 275 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,101 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $3,043,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Creative Planning raised its position in F5 by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $688,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its position in F5 by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 11,873 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,614,000 after buying an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $205,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in F5 by 28.3% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 14,500 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $3,193,000 after buying an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in F5 by 67.0% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,573 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 631 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $299.78 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $262.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.26. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.80, a PEG ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback 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 purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on FFIV shares. Bank of America increased their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% 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.