First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 37,354 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 37,354 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 2.17% of F5 worth $316,814,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 31.8% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $57,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,446,454.39. The trade was a 0.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,232 shares of company stock worth $5,310,131. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

F5 Trading Down 0.1 %

F5 stock opened at $258.61 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $274.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $259.01. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The company has a market cap of $14.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on F5 from $304.00 to $262.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $289.67.

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.