Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Sells 7,178 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lessened its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 28,001 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 7,178 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.'s holdings in F5 were worth $6,166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in F5 by 10.1% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 204,506 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $45,032,000 after acquiring an additional 18,739 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 25,812 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $5,560,000 after buying an additional 1,127 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 116.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 85,657 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $18,862,000 after buying an additional 46,086 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in F5 by 14.3% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $15,532,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $661,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped 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. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven investment 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, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $233.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares in the company, valued at $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV traded down $0.57 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $241.31. 544,002 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 737,437. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $155.48 and a one year high of $250.46. The firm has a market cap of $14.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $218.47 and a 200-day moving average of $191.95.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced 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. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 10.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.