US Bancorp DE Trims Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

US Bancorp DE lessened its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 13.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,414 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 983 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE's holdings in F5 were worth $1,708,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,383 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,108,000 after acquiring an additional 2,242 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in F5 by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 7,179 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,765,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. FIL Ltd lifted its stake in F5 by 16.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 11,470 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $2,884,000 after purchasing an additional 1,622 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in F5 by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 235,436 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $59,205,000 after buying an additional 28,400 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in shares of F5 by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 9,635 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,423,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of F5 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. One equities research 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total transaction of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total transaction of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,520,097 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV stock opened at $317.23 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $297.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $283.95. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.19 and a 52-week high of $334.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.95, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.36 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.

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