Aurora Investment Counsel Buys Shares of 7,566 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Aurora Investment Counsel bought a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,566 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,666,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its holdings in F5 by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 318,788 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $70,197,000 after acquiring an additional 4,069 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $1,428,000. Commerce Bank grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.2% during the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 2,485 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $547,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $271,000. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 21.8% during the third quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 10,494 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,311,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were 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 owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,750 shares of company stock worth $799,229. Insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $242.02 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $14.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $250.46. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $225.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $195.83.

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

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.