Bridgewater Associates LP Acquires 5,201 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Bridgewater Associates LP raised its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 8.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 69,548 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,201 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP owned about 0.12% of F5 worth $15,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in F5 in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $250.07 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $252.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $228.03 and a 200-day moving average of $198.20.

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

F5 declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039. Corporate insiders own 0.58% 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.