B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Makes New Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,229 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $271,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 2.3% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 6.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 0.3% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price 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. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Trading Up 0.7 %

F5 stock opened at $248.74 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $227.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $197.64. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.58 billion, a PE ratio of 26.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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

F5 Company 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.