Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Decreases Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans trimmed its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 32.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 28,151 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 13,654 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' holdings in F5 were worth $6,199,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its position in F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,575 shares of company stock valued at $997,039 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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 note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded up $2.69 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $246.98. The company had a trading volume of 346,441 shares, compared to its average volume of 721,421. The company's 50-day moving average is $226.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $197.09. The company has a market cap of $14.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued 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 company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are 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.