Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Sells 2,343 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 42.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,155 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 2,343 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd's holdings in F5 were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 275.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in F5 by 31.4% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total value of $364,669.68. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% 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, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value 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. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,872 shares of company stock valued at $1,702,309 over the last three months. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. One equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded down $5.99 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $307.43. 790,548 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 494,142. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $184.80 and a 12-month high of $334.00. The company has a market cap of $17.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.09, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 1.03. The business's fifty day moving average price is $294.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $282.40.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. 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 company posted $3.36 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.