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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the March 31st total of 1,710,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 443,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.2 days. Currently, 3.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $182.13 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $187.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $176.72. The stock has a market cap of $10.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. F5 has a 52 week low of $129.93 and a 52 week high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.70 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $192.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 776.6% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 36,424 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,906,000 after buying an additional 32,269 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of F5 by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 89,991 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $17,061,000 after buying an additional 2,666 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in F5 by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 56,046 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,626,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in F5 in the 1st quarter worth about $208,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in F5 by 49.9% in the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 23,441 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,444,000 after purchasing an additional 7,805 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.