Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Raises Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in F5, Inc. by 23.9%, owning approximately 0.06% of the company worth $9.31 million after purchasing additional shares.
• Insiders, including Director Alan Higginson and CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, sold shares valued at over $2.5 million recently, indicating a decrease in their ownership of the stock.
• F5 reported earnings of $4.16 per share, exceeding analyst expectations, and showed a 12.2% revenue growth compared to the same quarter last year.

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 23.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 34,981 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 6,757 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.06% of F5 worth $9,314,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,383 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,108,000 after purchasing an additional 2,242 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in F5 by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,179 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,765,000 after buying an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased its stake in F5 by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 11,470 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,884,000 after buying an additional 1,622 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in F5 by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 9,635 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,423,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $16,623,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total value of $514,728.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,376 shares in the company, valued at $1,251,360.96. This trade represents a 29.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total transaction of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,699 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,227,002 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock traded down $3.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $315.34. 327,752 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 583,240. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $301.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $286.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $194.45 and a 12-month high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. The company had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.36 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FFIV. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 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.