National Bank of Canada FI Acquires 7,500 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 46.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 23,644 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI's holdings in F5 were worth $5,206,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the second quarter worth $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 49.7% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company's 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock valued at $775,389. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $261.81. 562,866 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 533,348. The company has a market capitalization of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $264.50. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $236.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $204.69.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $233.56.

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.