Bank of Montreal Can Buys 1,307 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 309,466 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,307 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.53% of F5 worth $67,773,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in F5 by 6,700.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in F5 by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in F5 by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in 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. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total transaction of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $250.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $228.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $198.20. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $252.30.

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

F5 declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

F5 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.