Mendota Financial Group LLC Sells 197 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Mendota Financial Group LLC lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 30.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 458 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. Mendota Financial Group LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth $32,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its position in F5 by 9,100.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $255.16 on Tuesday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $264.50. The company has a market capitalization of $14.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $251.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $218.75.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays raised their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target 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. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $239.33.

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.