Vanguard Group Inc. Has $1.98 Billion Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Vanguard Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,424,477 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 119,779 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of F5 worth $1,976,915,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,383 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,108,000 after acquiring an additional 2,242 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,179 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,765,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its holdings in F5 by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 11,470 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,884,000 after acquiring an additional 1,622 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in F5 by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 9,635 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,423,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $16,623,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $321.77 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.49 billion, a PE ratio of 28.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $188.31 and a one year high of $334.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $298.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $284.40.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. The business had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total value of $417,206.31. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,013 shares in the company, valued at $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,520,097. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.