Private Advisory Group LLC Makes New $469,000 Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• Private Advisory Group LLC invested approximately $469,000 to acquire 1,760 shares of F5, Inc. in the first quarter, marking a new position for the fund.
• Wall Street analysts have set varied price targets for F5, with Piper Sandler raising its target to $355.00 and Needham & Company increasing its target to $345.00, indicating overall positive sentiment but a consensus "Hold" rating.
• F5 reported a strong quarterly performance with earnings per share of $4.16, exceeding analysts' expectations of $3.49, alongside a revenue growth of 12.2% from the previous year.

Private Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,760 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $469,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 966 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 20,249 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $5,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $318,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 97.3% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 4,916 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,236,000 after purchasing an additional 2,424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 213.5% in the 4th quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 3,853 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,624 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,872 shares of company stock valued at $1,702,309. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock traded down $5.99 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $307.43. 790,548 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 494,142. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.09, a PEG ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.03. The firm's 50 day moving average is $294.53 and its 200-day moving average is $282.54. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $184.80 and a fifty-two week high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. The company had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.64 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. F5's revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.36 EPS. Analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $309.89.

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.