Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Raises Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 246.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 89,839 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 63,871 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in F5 were worth $19,783,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in F5 by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $53,247,000 after purchasing an additional 11,525 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 195.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,170,000 after buying an additional 14,541 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd grew its position in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,964,000 after buying an additional 2,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of F5 by 14.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,532,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This trade represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Up 0.1 %

F5 stock opened at $250.35 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $229.41 and its 200 day moving average is $198.92. The company has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $252.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.