Telemark Asset Management LLC Acquires Shares of 60,000 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Telemark Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 60,000 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,212,000. F5 accounts for approximately 1.3% of Telemark Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in F5 by 424.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 7,604 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,442,000 after purchasing an additional 6,153 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,247,000 after buying an additional 11,525 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 195.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after buying an additional 14,541 shares during the period. Finally, Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,575 shares of company stock worth $997,039. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $244.57 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $225.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.