Lipe & Dalton Purchases 200 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Lipe & Dalton increased its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 19.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,240 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in F5 were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 783.3% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 318 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in F5 in the third quarter worth approximately $84,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $94,000 after acquiring an additional 317 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057 over the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $295.56 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $275.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $240.71. The stock has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $313.00.

F5 announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays raised 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. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

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.