2,930 Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Bought by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,930 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $780,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 71.7% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 16,505 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $4,185,000 after purchasing an additional 6,890 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 56.7% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 2,163 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 783 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 149,891 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $37,693,000 after purchasing an additional 2,032 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in F5 by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 7,577 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,905,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, Apollon Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $360,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total value of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. The trade was a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,891 shares of company stock worth $2,418,732. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $1.23 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $291.66. The stock had a trading volume of 266,807 shares, compared to its average volume of 564,428. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $272.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $271.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $165.68 and a one year high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) 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 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 company earned $2.91 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share 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.