Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $16.62 Million in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 66,105 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,623,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. Smithfield Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $57,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 783.3% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 318 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $84,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP increased its position in F5 by 1,132.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $94,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $267.45 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $283.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $250.72. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $313.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.59, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,932 shares of company stock worth $4,965,150. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 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.