Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Makes New $53.21 Million Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 211,603 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,212,000. F5 comprises 2.4% of Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. owned 0.36% of F5 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 852 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $214,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in shares of F5 by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was 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 $45,836,915.82. The trade was a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at $7,915,557.12. This trade represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,060 shares of company stock worth $4,477,083 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $280.11 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.15 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $313.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $280.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.28.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America upped their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.