Ritholtz Wealth Management Buys 2,212 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 227.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,186 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,212 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in F5 were worth $848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 34,698.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $198,661,000 after purchasing an additional 743,945 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake 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 worth $106,944,000 after acquiring an additional 364,372 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in F5 by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $229,597,000 after acquiring an additional 251,534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $59,623,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,013 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders have sold 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,370,959 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. 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. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock 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 given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $282.56.

F5 Trading Up 0.2%

FFIV stock traded up $0.65 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $287.13. The company's stock had a trading volume of 842,795 shares, compared to its average volume of 556,815. The company has a market cap of $16.49 billion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $167.35 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The firm's 50-day moving average is $277.78 and its 200-day moving average is $273.80.

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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The company's revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. Analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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.