Natixis Decreases Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Natixis reduced its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 98.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,297 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 63,385 shares during the period. Natixis' holdings in F5 were worth $326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 598.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $106,944,000 after purchasing an additional 364,372 shares in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,623,000. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $53,212,000. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in F5 by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 296,506 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $74,562,000 after buying an additional 134,537 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays dropped their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $282.56.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $1.99 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $263.09. 769,787 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 583,273. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.17 billion, a PE ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $268.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $261.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. F5's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,232 shares of company stock valued at $5,310,131. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

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.