D.A. Davidson & CO. Decreases Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

D.A. Davidson & CO. trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 33.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,971 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 2,477 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.'s holdings in F5 were worth $1,095,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 195.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $4,170,000 after acquiring an additional 14,541 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 1st quarter worth $299,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 55.6% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 57,361 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $10,775,000 after purchasing an additional 20,486 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 11.7% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 942 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.4% during the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 15,067 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,595,000 after buying an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FFIV. Barclays raised their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, 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 note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $0.28 during trading on Monday, reaching $250.35. 294,717 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 533,284. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $252.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. The company's 50 day moving average is $230.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $199.84.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039. 0.58% of the stock is currently 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.