Empowered Funds LLC Purchases Shares of 34,335 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 34,335 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $7,561,000. Empowered Funds LLC owned about 0.06% of F5 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,465,022 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,415,294,000 after purchasing an additional 29,154 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $146,118,000 after buying an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 48.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $111,932,000 after buying an additional 214,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on 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 boosted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $233.56.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company'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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $3.69 on Friday, reaching $238.36. 491,461 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 736,844. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $250.46. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $222.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $194.47. The company has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.93, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 prior year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership 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.