S Bank Fund Management Ltd Acquires Shares of 2,856 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Points

• S Bank Fund Management Ltd has acquired 2,856 shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), valued at approximately $760,000, during the first quarter.
• F5, Inc. reported $4.16 earnings per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations of $3.49, with revenue up 12.2% from the previous year.
• Institutional investors now own 90.66% of F5's stock, indicating strong institutional interest in the network technology company.

S Bank Fund Management Ltd acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,856 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $760,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 41.4% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 156,130 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $41,424,000 after purchasing an additional 45,737 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 5.9% during the first quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 29,405 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $7,823,000 after purchasing an additional 1,642 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of F5 by 5.1% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 8,826 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,350,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares during the period. Linscomb Wealth Inc. increased its stake in F5 by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. now owns 10,117 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,694,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at $46,920,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. This represents a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total value of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. The trade was a 6.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,227,002 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $326.47 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $189.39 and a twelve month high of $334.00. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $299.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $285.09. The company has a market capitalization of $18.76 billion, a PE ratio of 28.76, a PEG ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.36 EPS. The company's revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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