Raiffeisen Bank International AG Takes Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 1,321 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $334,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in F5 by 598.3% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $106,944,000 after purchasing an additional 364,372 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in F5 by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $229,597,000 after purchasing an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,623,000. Finally, Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $53,212,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded up $1.20 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $286.90. 461,974 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 573,217. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $265.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $266.83. The company has a market cap of $16.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.52, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.45 and a 52 week high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on FFIV. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total transaction of $1,022,025.48. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,075 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,885,588.50. This represents a 14.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,305 shares of company stock valued at $2,561,360 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

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.