Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Has $1.25 Million Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. cut its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,669 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 1,189 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $53,247,000 after buying an additional 11,525 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after acquiring an additional 14,541 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd grew its stake in shares of F5 by 10.5% in the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in 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 worth $15,532,000 after acquiring an additional 8,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased 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. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, October 29th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Trading Up 0.1 %

FFIV stock opened at $250.35 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $229.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.92. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $252.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.