Olympiad Research LP Trims Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Olympiad Research LP lessened its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 31.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,048 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 488 shares during the quarter. Olympiad Research LP’s holdings in F5 were worth $264,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of F5 by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in F5 by 2.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its holdings in F5 by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. The trade was a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,915,557.12. The trade was a 13.05 % 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 worth $3,455,057. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 3.0 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $295.56 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $275.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $241.47. The company has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $313.00.

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

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.