Swedbank AB Has $175.32 Million Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Swedbank AB cut its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 697,170 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 9,304 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB owned about 1.19% of F5 worth $175,317,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in 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 valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FFIV. Bank of America increased their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $295.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company's stock, valued at $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm'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 sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of FFIV stock traded down $4.22 on Friday, reaching $297.26. The stock had a trading volume of 681,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 577,746. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $308.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06. The firm's 50-day moving average is $260.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $228.21.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management 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.