Forsta AP Fonden Invests $7.92 Million in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Forsta AP Fonden acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 31,500 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $7,921,000. Forsta AP Fonden owned about 0.05% of F5 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 1,681.1% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $62,898,000 after acquiring an additional 269,602 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,090,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $345,560,000 after buying an additional 117,080 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of FFIV traded down $2.69 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $294.57. 587,637 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 653,087. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $308.00. The firm's fifty day moving average is $260.25 and its 200-day moving average is $228.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $295.00.

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.