Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. Raises Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 110.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 560,493 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 294,050 shares during the quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. owned 0.97% of F5 worth $149,242,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,897,154,000 after purchasing an additional 64,261 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $402,536,000 after acquiring an additional 30,367 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of F5 by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $316,814,000 after acquiring an additional 37,354 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings 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, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in F5 by 34,698.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $198,661,000 after purchasing an additional 743,945 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. The trade was a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,370,959. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV traded up $6.49 on Friday, reaching $295.58. The company had a trading volume of 138,733 shares, compared to its average volume of 556,900. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.42 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The company has a market cap of $16.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $280.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $274.68.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.91 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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.