Point72 Asset Management L.P. Trims Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Point72 Asset Management L.P. lowered its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 24.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 121,105 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 38,252 shares during the quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in F5 were worth $30,454,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 0.9% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 1.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 30,367 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of F5 by 3.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 37,354 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of F5 by 38.0% during 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 period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $171,127,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $282.56.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $284.92 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.45 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The company has a market capitalization of $16.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $264.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $265.91.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.54, for a total value of $343,902.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,130,718. This trade represents a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,305 shares of company stock valued at $2,561,360 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.