Bridgewater Associates LP Acquires 5,201 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Bridgewater Associates LP lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 8.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 69,548 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 5,201 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP owned approximately 0.12% of F5 worth $15,314,000 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 modified their holdings of the company. Townsquare Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $447,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in F5 by 2.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 110,539 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $24,341,000 after acquiring an additional 2,908 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 68.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 58,236 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $12,824,000 after purchasing an additional 23,563 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in F5 by 0.4% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 309,466 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $67,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $262,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price 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. 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. Barclays upped their price objective 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted 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. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $1.85 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $250.07. 345,362 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 534,322. The firm has a market capitalization 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $252.30. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $228.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $198.57.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. The company's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value 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. This represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

About F5

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.