Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Cuts Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lowered its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 25.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 451,623 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 157,992 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP owned approximately 0.77% of F5 worth $99,447,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after buying an additional 835,912 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 48.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after buying an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of F5 by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after acquiring an additional 45,843 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $246.98 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $250.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.83, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $226.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $196.91.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,575 shares of company stock valued at $997,039. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.