Invesco Ltd. Reduces Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• Invesco Ltd. has cut its stake in F5, Inc. by 7.9%, now holding approximately 1.5 million shares worth $412.49 million.
• F5, Inc. reported strong earnings for the last quarter, with an EPS of $4.16, exceeding expectations and reflecting a 12.2% year-over-year revenue growth.
• Institutional investors own 90.66% of F5, indicating a strong institutional support for the company's shares.

Invesco Ltd. cut its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 7.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,549,140 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 132,079 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned 2.70% of F5 worth $412,490,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 134.1% in the 1st quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in F5 by 275.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $60,000. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in F5 by 31.4% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, 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 value of $400,582.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,942,545.42. This represents a 1.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total transaction of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 13,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,227,002. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $0.68 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $325.79. The stock had a trading volume of 492,470 shares, compared to its average volume of 587,341. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $190.94 and a one year high of $334.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $285.37.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.36 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Company 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.