Benjamin Edwards Inc. Sells 1,328 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• Benjamin Edwards Inc. reduced its stake in F5, Inc. by 37.4%, selling 1,328 shares and holding 2,220 shares valued at approximately $591,000.
• Institutional investors currently own 90.66% of F5's stock, with several funds increasing their holdings significantly, including GAMMA Investing LLC, which raised its stake by 34,698.9%.
• F5, Inc. reported a 12.2% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue and earnings per share of $4.16, surpassing analyst expectations.

Benjamin Edwards Inc. lessened its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 37.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,220 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 1,328 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.'s holdings in F5 were worth $591,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. 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 worth $198,661,000 after purchasing an additional 743,945 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in F5 by 110.4% in the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 560,493 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $149,242,000 after buying an additional 294,050 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in F5 by 659.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 316,992 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $84,405,000 after buying an additional 275,244 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in F5 by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $229,597,000 after buying an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 400.3% in the 4th quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 220,291 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $55,397,000 after buying an additional 176,260 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total transaction of $514,728.00. Following the sale, the director owned 4,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,251,360.96. This trade represents a 29.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total transaction of $400,582.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at $33,942,545.42. This trade represents a 1.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,816 shares of company stock worth $4,227,002. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. 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 raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $318.50 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $300.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $285.75. The stock has a market cap of $18.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $193.70 and a fifty-two week high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.64 million. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.36 EPS. On average, analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current 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.

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