F5, Inc. $FFIV Stock Holdings Raised by Compass Financial Management LLC

Key Points

• Compass Financial Management increased its F5 stake by 136.1% in the third quarter, adding 3,170 shares to own 5,499 shares valued at about $2.45 million.
• F5 beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, with revenue up 13.2% year over year; its board also authorized a $1.5 billion share buyback.
• Analysts’ consensus rating is Hold, with an average price target of $443; company insiders also reported share sales under pre-arranged trading plans.

Compass Financial Management LLC raised its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 136.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,499 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,170 shares during the period. Compass Financial Management LLC's holdings in F5 were worth $2,448,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,611,637,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in F5 in the second quarter worth approximately $243,865,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in F5 in the second quarter worth approximately $208,277,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in F5 in the second quarter valued at approximately $205,453,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $172,297,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, 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 value of $82,872.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $466,769.76. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares of the business's 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 transaction, the chief technology officer owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $536,899.44. The trade was a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $329.70 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.67 billion, a PE ratio of 26.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.59. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $425.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $363.56. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $483.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. The business's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.39 EPS. Analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to buy back $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Barclays reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $415.00 to $448.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $443.00.

F5 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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