Man Group plc increased its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 337.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,550 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 31,277 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc owned approximately 0.07% of F5 worth $10,197,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.
F5 Price Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $2.38 during trading on Friday, reaching $282.10. The company had a trading volume of 248,401 shares, compared to its average volume of 570,987. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $266.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $267.87. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.45 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00.
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 analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. F5's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. 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. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler boosted 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. Barclays reduced their price objective on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $282.56.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on FFIV
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares of the company's stock, valued at $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total value of $1,022,025.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares in the company, valued at $5,885,588.50. This represents a 14.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,577 shares of company stock valued at $2,926,029 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.
F5 Company Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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