Van ECK Associates Corp Raises Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,720 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 461 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,740,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 203.5% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,052,000 after buying an additional 324,886 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in F5 by 13.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after buying an additional 212,784 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in F5 by 3,545.5% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 172,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,874,000 after buying an additional 168,232 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in F5 by 42.0% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 370,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $59,768,000 after buying an additional 109,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in F5 during the third quarter worth about $15,350,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $185.10.

F5 Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $171.76 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a PE ratio of 20.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $185.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $177.35. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $133.91 and a twelve month 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 9.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,597,385.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total value of $91,155.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total transaction of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,504 shares in the company, valued at $2,597,385.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 11,651 shares of company stock worth $2,138,608. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About F5

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.