Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,938 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $487,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares of the company's stock, valued at $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,305 shares of company stock worth $2,561,360. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Up 0.8%

FFIV traded up $2.25 during trading on Friday, hitting $284.92. The company's stock had a trading volume of 331,416 shares, compared to its average volume of 573,768. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $164.45 and a one year high of $313.00. The firm has a market cap of $16.36 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $264.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.60.

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

F5 Company 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.