Gradient Investments LLC Has $2.30 Million Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Gradient Investments LLC lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 9.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,164 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 943 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 80.3% in the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 977 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 1,103 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Oliver Luxxe Assets LLC bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $312,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 30,087 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $7,566,000 after purchasing an additional 9,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,686 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $8,722,000 after purchasing an additional 6,455 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $251.25.

F5 Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of FFIV opened at $272.99 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $255.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $224.38. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $274.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. 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 business earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.