Burney Co. Sells 280 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Burney Co. lessened its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,056 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 280 shares during the period. Burney Co.’s holdings in F5 were worth $5,044,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $261.69 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.54 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $264.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $251.32 and a 200 day moving average of $218.75.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $239.33.

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.