Gotham Asset Management LLC Has $21.71 Million Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 86,319 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,380 shares during the quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.15% of F5 worth $21,707,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in F5 by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,897,154,000 after purchasing an additional 64,261 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $402,536,000 after purchasing an additional 30,367 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of F5 by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $316,814,000 after buying an additional 37,354 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of F5 by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $229,597,000 after buying an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $171,127,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FFIV. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. StockNews.com lowered shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $282.56.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded up $3.60 on Tuesday, hitting $283.95. 18,564 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 573,267. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.45 and a twelve month high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company's 50 day moving average price is $263.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $264.92.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company's revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.54, for a total value of $343,902.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,700 shares in the company, valued at $40,130,718. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 15,805 shares of company stock valued at $4,531,250. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.