F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Purchased by Bank of Montreal Can

Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 0.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 309,466 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,307 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in F5 were worth $67,773,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in F5 by 2.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its position in F5 by 4.9% during the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC grew its position in F5 by 6.3% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in F5 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $250.07 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $228.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $198.20. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $252.30. The firm has a market cap 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 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was 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 directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on FFIV shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

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.