MetLife Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

MetLife Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,157 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 469 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $3,338,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % 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. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on FFIV. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of F5 stock opened at $251.13 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $253.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $230.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $200.39.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board 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.