F5, Inc. $FFIV Stock: Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Cuts Position

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 129,799 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 4,853 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $57,784,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth about $2,611,637,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in F5 by 23.9% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 732,219 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $325,969,000 after acquiring an additional 141,131 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 24.8% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 726,844 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $302,338,000 after acquiring an additional 144,534 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in F5 by 0.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 603,086 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $174,463,000 after acquiring an additional 4,296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $243,865,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $525.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Piper Sandler cut shares of F5 from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $461.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen raised F5 from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 price target on F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $443.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John Maddison sold 204 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $406.24, for a total value of $82,872.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $466,769.76. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Michael F. Montoya sold 4,426 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total value of $1,815,368.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $536,899.44. This trade represents a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 2.0%

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $331.15 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.59. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $426.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $363.28. The company has a market capitalization of $18.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.07. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $483.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.26 by $0.16. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The firm had revenue of $917.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $884.03 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.39 EPS. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, October 27th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

F5 Profile

F5, Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.