KBC Group NV Sells 17,325 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

KBC Group NV trimmed its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 35.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,931 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 17,325 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned 0.05% of F5 worth $7,778,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $32,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business'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 transaction of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler raised their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $299.38.

F5 Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of FFIV traded up $1.55 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $302.01. The company had a trading volume of 513,144 shares, compared to its average volume of 633,961. The firm has a market cap of $17.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $308.00. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $258.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $226.55.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.