Barclays PLC Buys 2,008 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 144,572 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned about 0.25% of F5 worth $31,836,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $53,247,000 after purchasing an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its position in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $4,964,000 after buying an additional 2,730 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in F5 by 14.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $15,532,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in F5 by 9.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $90,245,000 after buying an additional 45,843 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $261.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 564,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 534,335. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $264.50. The company has a market capitalization of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $237.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $205.58.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,475 shares of company stock valued at $775,389 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently 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.