Concentric Capital Strategies LP Acquires New Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Concentric Capital Strategies LP bought a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 8,641 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,903,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after purchasing an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after buying an additional 835,912 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after acquiring an additional 214,351 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 8.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $103,096,000 after acquiring an additional 48,742 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in F5 by 9.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after acquiring an additional 45,843 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $252.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $230.04 and a 200-day moving average of $199.84. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $253.62. The company has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

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.