Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Sells 10,541 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lowered its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 268,235 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 10,541 shares during the quarter. F5 comprises about 1.2% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned 0.46% of F5 worth $67,453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $66,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on FFIV. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $246.00.

F5 Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of FFIV opened at $263.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.61, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $267.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $253.16 and a 200-day moving average of $220.60.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. F5’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.