Forsta AP Fonden Purchases New Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Forsta AP Fonden purchased a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 31,500 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,921,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the third quarter worth $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in F5 during the second quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 79.8% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.38.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $301.48 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.54, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $259.25 and a 200 day moving average of $227.07. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $308.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued 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 company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.