F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by Boston Trust Walden Corp

Key Points

• Boston Trust Walden cut its F5 stake by 3.6% in the third quarter, selling 6,304 shares; it retained 171,076 shares valued at approximately $76.2 million.
• F5 reported quarterly earnings of $4.42 per share, ahead of the $4.26 consensus, while revenue of $917.4 million beat estimates and grew 13.2% year over year.
• Analysts’ consensus rating was Hold, with an average price target of $443. F5 also approved a $1.5 billion share-repurchase program.

Boston Trust Walden Corp decreased its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 3.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 171,076 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 6,304 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned approximately 0.30% of F5 worth $76,160,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,365 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $608,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 3,718 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,076,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $915,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. North Dakota State Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board now owns 1,733 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, GraniteShares Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. GraniteShares Advisors LLC now owns 1,021 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Barclays restated a "mixed" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $415.00 to $448.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on F5 from $525.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded F5 from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $443.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $536,899.44. This trade represents a 77.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Maddison sold 204 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.24, for a total transaction of $82,872.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $466,769.76. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV stock opened at $329.70 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $483.30. The firm has a market cap of $18.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.31, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.07. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $425.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $363.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $884.03 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The business's revenue was up 13.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.39 earnings per share. Analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to buy back $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc NASDAQ: FFIV provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.

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