F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stake Lifted by Axa S.A.

AXA S.A. lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 17.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,115 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,192 shares during the quarter. AXA S.A.'s holdings in F5 were worth $3,801,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 worth $1,897,154,000 after buying an additional 64,261 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 30,367 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in 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 worth $316,814,000 after buying an additional 37,354 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in F5 by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $229,597,000 after acquiring an additional 251,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $171,127,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $5,885,588.50. This represents a 14.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at $5,558,159.80. This represents a 6.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,805 shares of company stock worth $4,531,250. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $282.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $3.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $269.51. 379,595 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 575,307. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $263.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $263.78. The stock has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current 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.