Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Grows Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,177 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. owned 0.06% of F5 worth $9,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 34,698.9% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 598.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $106,944,000 after acquiring an additional 364,372 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $229,597,000 after acquiring an additional 251,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This trade represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,370,959 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV traded up $6.66 on Friday, hitting $295.75. 675,626 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 559,197. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $281.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $275.06. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.55 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.98 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 EPS. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share 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.