Monarch Capital Management Inc. Has $3.94 Million Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Monarch Capital Management Inc. trimmed its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 7.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,786 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 1,255 shares during the period. Monarch Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in F5 were worth $3,937,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 743,945 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of F5 by 598.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $106,944,000 after buying an additional 364,372 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in F5 by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $229,597,000 after acquiring an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $59,623,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total transaction of $488,067.84. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $314,689.04. The trade was a 60.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,891 shares of company stock worth $2,418,732 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $282.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $293.03. The company had a trading volume of 70,002 shares, compared to its average volume of 563,658. The firm has a market cap of $16.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $165.68 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $272.87 and a 200 day moving average of $271.85.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal 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.