DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main Takes Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main bought a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,408 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,108,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in F5 by 1.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 144,572 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $31,836,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 1.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,002 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $19,818,000 after acquiring an additional 1,614 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co acquired a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $354,000. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in F5 by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 12,596 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $3,168,000 after purchasing an additional 723 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $282.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV traded up $1.08 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $282.67. 254,802 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 574,521. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.23 billion, a PE ratio of 28.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $264.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.16. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.45 and a 52-week high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total value of $1,022,025.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,305 shares of company stock worth $2,561,360 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

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.