F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Update

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,560,000 shares, a growth of 5.4% from the December 31st total of 1,480,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 564,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 783.3% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 318 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $295.19 on Tuesday. F5 has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $308.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.13 billion, a PE ratio of 29.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $261.18 and its 200 day moving average is $229.38.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign 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.