Nomura Holdings Inc. Purchases New Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,916 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $482,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 457.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $7,899,000 after buying an additional 25,748 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 194,820 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $48,991,000 after purchasing an additional 7,341 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 163.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 80,013 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $20,121,000 after purchasing an additional 49,629 shares in the last quarter. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,856,000. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 2,224 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $525,000 after buying an additional 1,112 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was 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 $314,689.04. This trade represents a 60.80% 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 the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.54, for a total transaction of $343,902.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,130,718. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,577 shares of company stock valued at $2,926,029 over the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

F5 Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $2.38 on Friday, hitting $282.10. 248,401 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 570,987. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.45 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $266.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $267.68. The company has a market cap of $16.20 billion, a PE ratio of 28.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of America boosted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $290.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays lowered 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 note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

F5 Company 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.