F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) EVP Sells $1,188,320.69 in Stock

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,915,557.12. This represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded up $4.59 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $299.78. 806,662 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 674,055. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $261.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $229.38. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.00. The company has a market cap of $17.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in F5 by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.9% in the third 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. Finally, Greenleaf Trust boosted its position in shares of F5 by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays raised their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

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.