Unigestion Holding SA Purchases New Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Unigestion Holding SA acquired a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,826 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $622,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 1,681.1% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $62,898,000 after acquiring an additional 269,602 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 48.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV traded up $1.50 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $261.57. The company had a trading volume of 587,179 shares, compared to its average volume of 534,210. The company has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $263.31. The company's 50-day moving average is $236.56 and its 200-day moving average is $204.69.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $233.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,475 shares of company stock worth $775,389 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

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.