Hsbc Holdings PLC Has $101.22 Million Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Hsbc Holdings PLC lessened its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 35.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 402,541 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 224,109 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned about 0.69% of F5 worth $101,217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,897,154,000 after purchasing an additional 64,261 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $402,536,000 after buying an additional 30,367 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of F5 by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $316,814,000 after buying an additional 37,354 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $171,127,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in F5 by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 656,231 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $165,022,000 after acquiring an additional 80,570 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 value of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,232 shares of company stock valued at $5,310,131. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded down $2.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $262.85. The company had a trading volume of 514,675 shares, compared to its average volume of 582,225. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $268.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $261.30. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00. The firm has a market cap of $15.15 billion, a PE ratio of 26.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.91 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $284.78.

F5 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.