Short Interest in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Declines By 17.9%

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, a drop of 17.9% from the January 31st total of 1,840,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 555,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $295.00.

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F5 Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of FFIV traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $275.63. The company had a trading volume of 547,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 619,158. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $281.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $247.97. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The stock has a market cap of $15.89 billion, a PE ratio of 27.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total value of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,075 shares in the company, valued at $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the director now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 15,060 shares of company stock worth $4,477,083. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.