AtonRa Partners Lowers Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

AtonRa Partners trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 13.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,096 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 164 shares during the period. AtonRa Partners’ holdings in F5 were worth $196,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 36.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 56.4% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in F5 by 68.0% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 294 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on FFIV. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays lowered their target price on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $185.10.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $16.84 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $165.29. 645,941 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 445,645. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day moving average is $187.66 and its 200-day moving average is $176.72. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $129.93 and a 12-month high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The business had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.