First Trust Advisors LP Raises Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 37,354 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 2.17% of F5 worth $316,814,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Forum Financial Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $304,000. GeoWealth Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 40.1% during the fourth quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,285,000 after purchasing an additional 1,463 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $272,000. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $5,856,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,038,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,232 shares of company stock worth $5,310,131 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on F5 from $304.00 to $262.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $289.67.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV traded up $5.97 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $268.43. 191,521 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 578,428. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $313.00. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $270.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $259.77. The company has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

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.