Citigroup Inc. Sells 29,279 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Citigroup Inc. cut its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 131,434 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 29,279 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $28,942,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in F5 in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Finally, Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on shares of F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of F5 stock opened at $248.74 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $227.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $197.64. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $250.46. The company has a market capitalization of $14.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.02, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05.

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

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

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.