Baker Avenue Asset Management LP Invests $244,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• Baker Avenue Asset Management LP has acquired 915 shares of F5, Inc., valued at approximately $244,000, as part of its 1st quarter investments.
• Several institutional investors, including GAMMA Investing LLC and Pacer Advisors Inc., significantly boosted their stakes in F5, with increases of up to 34,698.9% and 659.3% respectively during the same period.
• F5, Inc. reported an earnings per share of $4.16 for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, while its quarterly revenue increased by 12.2% year-over-year.

Baker Avenue Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 915 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Private Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $469,000. Vestcor Inc raised its holdings in F5 by 689.3% in the 1st quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 7,364 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 6,431 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 275.0% during the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,856,000. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $240,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,471,465.89. This trade represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,172 shares of company stock worth $2,102,891. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Trading Up 0.8%

F5 stock traded up $2.45 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $321.23. The company had a trading volume of 523,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 553,411. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $185.74 and a 1-year high of $334.00. The stock has a market cap of $18.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.03. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $295.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $283.32.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The company had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.36 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast 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.