Banque Pictet & Cie SA Sells 3,275 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA lowered its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 17.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,297 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 3,275 shares during the quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA's holdings in F5 were worth $4,073,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of F5 by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 852 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $214,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 144.7% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 766 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $193,000 after acquiring an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 9,740.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 984 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 974 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in F5 by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 3,408 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $857,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $18,845,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of F5 in a report on Monday. They issued an "outperform" rating on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. This represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the company's 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 owned 5,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,408,594 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $8.00 during trading on Friday, hitting $291.89. The stock had a trading volume of 451,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 563,603. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $170.21 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The company's 50-day moving average price is $288.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $277.79. The company has a market capitalization of $16.76 billion, a PE ratio of 27.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.18%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 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.