AE Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• AE Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in F5, Inc. by 17.2%, ending the first quarter with $1.32 million worth of shares.
• Insider sales included a director selling 1,800 shares at around $285.96 per share, reflecting a significant decline in their holdings.
• F5, Inc. reported $3.42 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, but had revenue that fell short of expectations at $590.16 million.

AE Wealth Management LLC trimmed its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 17.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,966 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 1,029 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC's holdings in F5 were worth $1,322,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 275.0% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in F5 by 31.4% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $23.60 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $322.59. The company had a trading volume of 714,206 shares, compared to its average volume of 539,770. The company has a fifty day moving average of $293.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $281.66. The company has a market cap of $18.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a PEG ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $184.80 and a 12-month high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The company had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.36 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays set a $321.00 target price on F5 in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $305.11.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,919 shares in the company, valued at $2,843,678.11. This trade represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,219 shares of company stock valued at $2,064,692 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.