Commerce Bank Has $547,000 Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Commerce Bank grew its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,485 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in F5 were worth $547,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in F5 by 2.9% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock opened at $251.92 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $227.29 and its 200 day moving average is $197.64. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $252.16. The firm has a market cap of $14.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays upped their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

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.