F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Acquired by BNP Paribas Financial Markets

BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 32.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 146,918 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 36,379 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned about 0.25% of F5 worth $36,945,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.9% in the fourth 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 raised its stake in shares of F5 by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $402,536,000 after acquiring an additional 30,367 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings 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 valued at $316,814,000 after buying an additional 37,354 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of F5 by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $229,597,000 after purchasing an additional 251,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $171,127,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at $314,689.04. The trade was a 60.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 15,805 shares of company stock worth $4,531,250. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $3.63 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $269.51. 379,595 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 576,359. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The business's 50-day moving average is $263.90 and its 200-day moving average is $264.12. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.45 and a twelve month high of $313.00.

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

F5 Company 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.