Ethic Inc. Acquires 1,462 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Ethic Inc. raised its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 32.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,965 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,462 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in F5 were worth $1,500,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth approximately $57,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,075 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,305 shares of company stock worth $2,561,360. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on FFIV shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of America upped their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of FFIV traded up $2.25 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $284.92. 331,416 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 573,521. The company has a market cap of $16.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.45 and a 12-month high of $313.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $264.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $265.60.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.