Forsta AP Fonden Purchases New Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Forsta AP Fonden acquired a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 31,500 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,921,000. Forsta AP Fonden owned about 0.05% of F5 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in F5 by 2.0% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in F5 by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 2,485 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $547,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,108 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $244,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on FFIV. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

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

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $301.48 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $308.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $259.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $227.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

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

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.