Geode Capital Management LLC Increases Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 8.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 2.70% of F5 worth $345,560,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after buying an additional 835,912 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in F5 by 1,681.1% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $62,898,000 after acquiring an additional 269,602 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 48.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the period. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $261.81 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $264.50. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $237.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $205.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock valued at $775,389. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

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.