Kera Capital Partners Inc. Takes $272,000 Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,083 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $272,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in F5 in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $263.95 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $253.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $220.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $267.74.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $251.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business’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 transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.