Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC Invests $232,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC has made a new investment in F5, Inc., purchasing 869 shares valued at approximately $232,000.
• F5, Inc. reported a 12.2% increase in revenue for the quarter, amounting to $780.37 million, and an earnings per share of $4.16, exceeding analysts' expectations.
• Several research firms have updated their price targets for F5, with Barclays increasing theirs to $321.00 and Needham raising theirs to $345.00.

Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 869 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,179 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,765,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $16,623,000. Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 2,098 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 161,226 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $40,544,000 after buying an additional 16,654 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $1,038,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total value of $400,582.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,942,545.42. This trade represents a 1.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction, the director owned 4,376 shares in the company, valued at $1,251,360.96. This represents a 29.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,816 shares of company stock worth $4,227,002. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Barclays raised their price target on F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV traded down $3.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $315.34. The company's stock had a trading volume of 327,752 shares, compared to its average volume of 583,240. The company's fifty day moving average price is $301.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $285.97. The company has a market capitalization of $18.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $194.45 and a 52-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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. The business had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.36 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current 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.