Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Lowers Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,410 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 253 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,366,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after buying an additional 191,020 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in F5 by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after purchasing an additional 16,663 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in F5 by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in F5 by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after purchasing an additional 27,124 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $307.44 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $17.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $264.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $231.30. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $308.32.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other F5 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 transaction, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.