Merit Financial Group LLC Purchases Shares of 2,930 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,930 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $780,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Talbot Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,198,000. Addenda Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 53,098 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $14,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its position in F5 by 5.1% during the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,241 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $3,526,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 6.9% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 127,004 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $33,817,000 after purchasing an additional 8,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the first quarter valued at $495,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total value of $364,669.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This trade represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $314,689.04. This represents a 60.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,891 shares of company stock valued at $2,418,732 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $295.43 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $16.97 billion, a PE ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $270.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.21. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $164.67 and a one year high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 EPS 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 company had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. F5's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $282.56.

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.

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