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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,560,000 shares, an increase of 5.4% from the December 15th total of 1,480,000 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 564,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $251.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in F5 in the second quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Trading Up 0.0 %

FFIV stock traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $263.95. 384,592 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 364,589. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $253.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $221.29. F5 has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $267.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.