Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Buys 23,782 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Mirae Asset Global Investments initiated a position in F5, buying 23,782 shares valued at approximately $10.6 million in the third quarter.
• F5 reported quarterly EPS of $4.42 and revenue of $917.4 million, beating analyst estimates; revenue grew 13.2% year over year. Its board also authorized a $1.5 billion share buyback.
• Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $443, while institutional investors own 90.66% of F5 shares.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 23,782 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $10,587,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in F5 in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc bought a new stake in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 373.1% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 91.4% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 201 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 2,800.0% during the 2nd quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $84,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Down 0.4%

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $329.70 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $483.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $425.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $363.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of $18.67 billion, a PE ratio of 26.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $917.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $884.03 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. The company's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.39 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, October 27th that allows the company to buy back $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler lowered shares of F5 from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $461.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $443.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Maddison sold 204 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $406.24, for a total transaction of $82,872.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,769.76. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,309 shares of the company's stock, valued at $536,899.44. The trade was a 77.18% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About F5

F5, Inc NASDAQ: FFIV provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.

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