Eventide Asset Management LLC Purchases New Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Eventide Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 7,727 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,701,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 1,681.1% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $62,898,000 after purchasing an additional 269,602 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $250.35 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $252.30. The company’s fifty day moving average is $229.41 and its 200-day moving average is $198.92. The stock has a market cap of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05.

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

F5 declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.