Lipe & Dalton Purchases 200 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Lipe & Dalton boosted its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 19.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,240 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the quarter. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in F5 were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 1,681.1% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $62,898,000 after buying an additional 269,602 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth $35,090,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

F5 Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of FFIV opened at $295.56 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $275.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $240.71. The stock has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a PE ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $313.00.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.