D.A. Davidson & CO. Grows Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 22.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,100 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,129 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,534,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at about $84,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $94,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $99,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. 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 research report on Wednesday, January 29th. 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 research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $45,836,915.82. The trade was a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $295.56 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. The company’s 50-day moving average is $275.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $241.08. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $313.00.

F5 announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding 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 generally a sign that the company’s board 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.