F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Acquired by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Trading Down 1.5 %

F5 stock opened at $238.36 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.47.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.