F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, a growth of 9.9% from the March 31st total of 1,710,000 shares. Currently, 3.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 443,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,173,653.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at $317,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of F5 by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,362 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,965,000 after purchasing an additional 642 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 776.6% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 36,424 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $6,906,000 after purchasing an additional 32,269 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in F5 by 3.1% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 89,991 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $17,061,000 after buying an additional 2,666 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in F5 by 3.8% in the first quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 56,046 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $10,626,000 after buying an additional 2,036 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $167.00 target price (down previously from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays dropped their target price on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $185.10.

F5 Trading Down 9.2 %

Shares of FFIV stock traded down $16.82 on Tuesday, reaching $165.31. 2,061,313 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 463,137. F5 has a twelve month low of $129.93 and a twelve month high of $199.49. The company has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.50, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The business's 50 day moving average price is $187.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.72.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.70 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current 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.