F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Down 6.0% in March

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) saw a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,710,000 shares, a decrease of 6.0% from the March 15th total of 1,820,000 shares. Currently, 2.9% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 445,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $186.82.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total transaction of $90,045.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,508 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,674,275.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 123,251 shares in the company, valued at $23,173,653.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total transaction of $90,045.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,508 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,674,275.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,705 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the first quarter worth about $38,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 56.4% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded down $0.72 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $183.06. 244,067 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 435,574. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $188.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.11. F5 has a twelve month low of $127.05 and a twelve month high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $684.77 million. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. F5's quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 9.58 EPS for the current year.

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.