Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 66,105 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 66,105 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $16,623,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of F5 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in F5 by 0.9% during 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 buying an additional 64,261 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in F5 by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $402,536,000 after buying an additional 30,367 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $171,127,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in shares of F5 by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 656,231 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $165,022,000 after buying an additional 80,570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 598.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $106,944,000 after acquiring an additional 364,372 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on F5 from $310.00 to $269.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Evercore ISI raised their target price 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. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on F5 from $304.00 to $262.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $289.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at $314,689.04. This trade represents a 60.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at $39,446,454.39. The trade was a 0.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,232 shares of company stock valued at $5,310,131 over the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $7.69 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $262.46. 568,780 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 579,312. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $271.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $259.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

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.