F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Position Lifted by Vinva Investment Management Ltd

Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 212.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,332 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 3,623 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,168,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 0.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $250.35 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $252.30. The company has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $229.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $198.92.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.