Talbot Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 15,767 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Talbot Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 15,767 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $4,198,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Addenda Capital Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 5.5% in the first quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 53,098 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $14,138,000 after acquiring an additional 2,784 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in F5 by 5.1% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,241 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,526,000 after acquiring an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in F5 by 6.9% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 127,004 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $33,817,000 after acquiring an additional 8,158 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments bought a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $495,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 34,698.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $198,661,000 after acquiring an additional 743,945 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of F5 stock traded up $0.49 during trading on Thursday, hitting $294.32. 185,774 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 566,327. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $269.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $270.07. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.45 and a 1-year high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. 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 firm posted $2.91 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FFIV. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. 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. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. One 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $314,689.04. This represents a 60.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. This represents a 6.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,891 shares of company stock valued at $2,418,732. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

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.