Oak Harvest Investment Services Grows Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 361.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,857 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,857 shares during the period. Oak Harvest Investment Services’ holdings in F5 were worth $3,485,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FFIV. Synergy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 2,224 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $525,000 after buying an additional 1,112 shares during the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,921,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of F5 by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 266,443 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $67,002,000 after acquiring an additional 61,937 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 177.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 41,748 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,498,000 after buying an additional 26,696 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 51.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 937 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $236,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $301.48 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $259.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $227.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $308.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its 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 return on equity of 21.34% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price objective on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.38.

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.