Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. Sells 4,200 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. reduced its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 40.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 4,200 shares during the period. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,584,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its position in shares of F5 by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057 in the last three months. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on FFIV. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

F5 Trading Up 0.8 %

FFIV opened at $309.93 on Thursday. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.87 billion, a PE ratio of 30.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $274.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $239.51.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.