F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Update

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,480,000 shares, a decrease of 31.2% from the November 30th total of 2,150,000 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 581,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company'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 value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value 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 approximately $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,875 shares of company stock worth $644,889. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the second quarter worth $56,000. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth $66,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $237.11.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV traded down $1.49 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $255.63. The stock had a trading volume of 212,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 531,149. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $244.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $211.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

F5 Company 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.