F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Update

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,690,000 shares, an increase of 30.0% from the March 31st total of 1,300,000 shares. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 623,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on FFIV. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.4 %

F5 stock opened at $265.77 on Friday. F5 has a 52-week low of $163.12 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.42, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $266.38 and a 200-day moving average of $261.65.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. 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 analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $59,452. This represents a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,264 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,915,557.12. The trade was a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,504 shares of company stock valued at $5,088,492 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 34,698.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $198,661,000 after acquiring an additional 743,945 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in F5 by 598.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $106,944,000 after purchasing an additional 364,372 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 110.4% in the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 560,493 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $149,242,000 after purchasing an additional 294,050 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in F5 by 38.0% during the 4th 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% 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.

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