Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 4,475 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd reduced its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 15.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,345 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 4,475 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd's holdings in F5 were worth $5,361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 2.3% in 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 during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in F5 by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 6.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 0.3% during 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 buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target 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. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a "neutral" 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of F5 stock traded down $1.85 on Wednesday, hitting $250.07. The stock had a trading volume of 345,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 534,322. The stock has a market cap of $14.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $252.30. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $228.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $198.20.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 analysts' expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 121,122 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 over the last ninety days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.