Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Purchases 102 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in F5 by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,897,154,000 after buying an additional 64,261 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $402,536,000 after acquiring an additional 30,367 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in F5 by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $316,814,000 after acquiring an additional 37,354 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in F5 by 38.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $229,597,000 after purchasing an additional 251,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in F5 by 34,698.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $198,661,000 after purchasing an additional 743,945 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on FFIV. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This trade represents a 23.03% 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, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total transaction of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares in the company, valued at $5,558,159.80. This represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,370,959 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Trading Up 2.3%

F5 stock opened at $295.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $281.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $274.96. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.55 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $719.91 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

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.