F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Update

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,560,000 shares, a growth of 5.4% from the December 15th total of 1,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 564,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

F5 Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $263.95. The company had a trading volume of 384,592 shares, compared to its average volume of 364,589. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $253.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $221.29. The stock has a market cap of $15.47 billion, a PE ratio of 27.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $267.74.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its position in F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 2,485 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on FFIV shares. 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. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $251.25.

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.