Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 457 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,179 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,765,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in F5 by 36.5% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,383 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,108,000 after acquiring an additional 2,242 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $121,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of F5 by 76.2% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 110,393 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,790,000 after buying an additional 47,738 shares in the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Aviva PLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 602.3% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 37,414 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $9,408,000 after acquiring an additional 32,087 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on F5 from $310.00 to $269.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $285.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,232 shares of company stock worth $5,310,131. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $258.98 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $276.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $258.47. The company has a market cap of $14.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.74, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

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.