Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH Buys 63,247 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH grew its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2,300.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 65,996 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 63,247 shares during the period. F5 comprises approximately 0.6% of Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH’s holdings in F5 were worth $16,596,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 31.8% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $57,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wall Street Zen downgraded F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $282.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,919 shares in the company, valued at $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,577 shares of company stock worth $2,926,029 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Down 0.8%

F5 stock opened at $282.10 on Tuesday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.45 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $267.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $268.33. The company has a market cap of $16.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share 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.