D.A. Davidson & CO. Grows Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 22.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,100 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,129 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in F5 were worth $1,534,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 79.8% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $84,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in F5 by 1,132.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the period. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $99,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of F5 stock opened at $295.56 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $275.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $241.08. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $159.01 and a 12-month high of $313.00. The stock has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total value of $1,188,320.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,915,557.12. This represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. The trade was a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.