Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Has $23.82 Million Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. trimmed its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 34.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 94,740 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 50,600 shares during the quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned approximately 0.16% of F5 worth $23,824,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 144,572 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $31,836,000 after purchasing an additional 2,008 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,531,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $192,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,825 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,824,000 after acquiring an additional 2,325 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 376,215 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $82,553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,554 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company's stock, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 17,504 shares of company stock worth $5,088,492. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of FFIV traded up $1.49 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $266.23. The stock had a trading volume of 300,225 shares, compared to its average volume of 577,539. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.12 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $266.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $261.33. The firm has a market cap of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.91 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $282.56.

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.