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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,560,000 shares, a growth of 5.4% from the December 31st total of 1,480,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 564,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 2.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Trading Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ FFIV traded up $4.59 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $299.78. 806,667 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 674,062. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $262.14 and a 200-day moving average of $230.26. F5 has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a PE ratio of 29.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in 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 usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,915,557.12. This trade represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in F5 by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 11,729 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,949,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,623,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 35,480 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $8,922,000 after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lipe & Dalton raised its position in F5 by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 1,240 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $312,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.