Mizuho Securities USA LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 45.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,727 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,385,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth about $59,623,000. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,212,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after buying an additional 191,020 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,090,000. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in F5 by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 296,506 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $74,562,000 after buying an additional 134,537 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.3 %

FFIV stock opened at $275.05 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $284.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $253.66. The company has a market capitalization of $15.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.34, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $313.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % 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 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,932 shares of company stock valued at $4,965,150 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

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.