Lazard Asset Management LLC Purchases 61,388 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 887.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 68,306 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 61,388 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $17,176,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $57,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays reduced their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $282.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at $314,689.04. The trade was a 60.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,305 shares of company stock valued at $2,561,360. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

F5 Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of F5 stock opened at $283.23 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.27 billion, a PE ratio of 28.15, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.45 and a 12 month high of $313.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $264.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $265.04.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.91 EPS. Analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.