Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 265,048 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 20,591 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned about 0.46% of F5 worth $66,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in F5 by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 2.3% in 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 position in shares of 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 buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its position in shares of F5 by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $293.21 on Tuesday. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $313.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $276.22 and a 200 day moving average of $242.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.