Northern Trust Corp Purchases 251,534 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 38.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.57% of F5 worth $229,597,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in F5 by 598.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $106,944,000 after buying an additional 364,372 shares in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,623,000. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $53,212,000. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 400.3% in the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 220,291 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $55,397,000 after acquiring an additional 176,260 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total transaction of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $314,689.04. The trade was a 60.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,805 shares of company stock worth $4,531,250. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock traded up $1.66 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $266.48. The company had a trading volume of 48,645 shares, compared to its average volume of 602,084. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.45 and a 52 week high of $313.00. The company has a market cap of $15.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.49, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average of $264.83 and a 200 day moving average of $263.01.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler increased 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. Bank of America lifted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $282.56.

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.