Empowered Funds LLC Purchases New Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 34,335 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,561,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.9% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of F5 by 49.7% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This represents a 1.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $238.36 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $250.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $222.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $194.27. The company has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on FFIV. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

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.