Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Grows Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,679 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 457.6% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,899,000 after buying an additional 25,748 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its holdings in F5 by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 194,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $48,991,000 after buying an additional 7,341 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 36.3% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $539,000 after buying an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 2,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $525,000 after acquiring an additional 1,112 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,932 shares of company stock valued at $4,965,150 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 2.0 %

FFIV stock opened at $262.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $15.13 billion, a PE ratio of 26.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $282.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $249.55.

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.