Man Group plc Has $10.20 Million Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Man Group plc lifted its stake in 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 SEC. The firm owned 40,550 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 31,277 shares during the period. Man Group plc owned about 0.07% of F5 worth $10,197,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Smithfield Trust Co acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $57,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $60,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Up 0.8%

FFIV stock opened at $284.92 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.45 and a twelve month high of $313.00. The company has a market cap of $16.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The business's fifty day moving average is $264.83 and its 200-day moving average is $266.32.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 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. StockNews.com raised F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $282.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total transaction of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $314,689.04. This represents a 60.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,305 shares of company stock worth $2,561,360 over the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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