Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Sells 2,498 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 0.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 497,863 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,498 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $109,629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 6,700.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in F5 by 8.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after purchasing an additional 48,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of F5 by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after purchasing an additional 45,843 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

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

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target 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 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 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % 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 worth $977,039 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.