Glenmede Trust Co. NA Raises Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Glenmede Trust Co. NA raised its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,153 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,136 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA owned 0.14% of F5 worth $17,650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the first quarter worth about $274,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of F5 by 1.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 80,292 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $15,224,000 after purchasing an additional 811 shares in the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 25.3% in the first quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 8,845 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,787 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $4,170,000 after purchasing an additional 14,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of F5 by 2.0% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 98,769 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $18,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,908 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $250.35. 294,717 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 533,284. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $252.30. The stock has a market cap of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $229.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.92.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business 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%. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $233.56.

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.