Linscomb Wealth Inc. Invests $2.09 Million in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Linscomb Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,509 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $2,094,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 424.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,442,000 after purchasing an additional 6,153 shares during the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in F5 in the third quarter valued at $4,726,000. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in F5 by 60.7% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,083 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,239,000 after acquiring an additional 6,451 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in F5 by 3.9% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $53,247,000 after acquiring an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $4,170,000 after purchasing an additional 14,541 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $233.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV traded down $3.69 during trading on Friday, hitting $238.36. The company had a trading volume of 491,461 shares, compared to its average volume of 535,923. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The company has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a PE ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day moving average of $222.72 and a 200-day moving average of $194.27.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program 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 purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.