Key Financial Inc Lowers Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Financial Inc trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 13.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,305 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in F5 were worth $328,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in F5 by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $701,825,000 after purchasing an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of F5 by 24.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its position in shares of F5 by 7.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,124 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $310.18 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $17.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $272.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $238.20. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $312.76.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.