State of Wyoming Raises Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

State of Wyoming grew its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 951.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,651 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,494 shares during the quarter. State of Wyoming’s holdings in F5 were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of F5 by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,897,154,000 after purchasing an additional 64,261 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $402,536,000 after acquiring an additional 30,367 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $316,814,000 after acquiring an additional 37,354 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $229,597,000 after acquiring an additional 251,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $171,127,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $286.90 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $16.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.52, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.45 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $265.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $266.83.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total transaction of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,885,588.50. The trade was a 14.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,305 shares of company stock valued at $2,561,360 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 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.