National Bank of Canada FI Raises Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 14.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,170 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,526 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI's holdings in F5 were worth $6,833,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in F5 by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $57,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in F5 by 783.3% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 318 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company's stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % 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 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This trade represents a 0.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,232 shares of company stock worth $5,310,131 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $262.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $285.78.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV traded up $6.68 on Friday, hitting $261.68. The company had a trading volume of 600,746 shares, compared to its average volume of 576,534. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $278.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $257.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $313.00.

F5 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.