Farther Finance Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 84.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,395 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,094 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC's holdings in F5 were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Savant Capital LLC raised its position in F5 by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $281,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in F5 by 457.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $7,899,000 after buying an additional 25,748 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in F5 by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 33,063 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $8,452,000 after buying an additional 5,062 shares during the last quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA purchased a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $4,670,000. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in F5 by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,040 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $13,589,000 after buying an additional 3,345 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.54, for a total value of $343,902.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,130,718. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,370,959 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Stock Down 0.7%

FFIV traded down $2.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $286.48. The stock had a trading volume of 376,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 561,603. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $276.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $273.18. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.35 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The stock has a market cap of $16.45 billion, a PE ratio of 27.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current 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.