Insider Selling: F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) EVP Sells 1,347 Shares of Stock

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

F5 Stock Down 1.3 %

F5 stock traded down $3.63 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $269.51. The stock had a trading volume of 379,595 shares, compared to its average volume of 575,307. The company has a fifty day moving average of $263.90 and a 200 day moving average of $263.78. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.45 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The firm has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, StockNews.com cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $282.56.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 71.0% in the first quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 6,670 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,776,000 after purchasing an additional 2,769 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in F5 by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 330,805 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $88,083,000 after buying an additional 30,341 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter worth $232,000. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. acquired a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $522,000. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 134.1% during the 1st quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.