F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Down 6.0% in March

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,710,000 shares, a decline of 6.0% from the March 15th total of 1,820,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 445,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days. Currently, 2.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. KeyCorp lifted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $186.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total value of $90,045.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,674,275.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total value of $90,045.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,674,275.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,705 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of F5

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commerce Bank grew its holdings in F5 by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 1,912 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its holdings in F5 by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 1,150 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $206,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA grew its holdings in F5 by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. BOKF NA now owns 5,706 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,021,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 1,210 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $177,000 after buying an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,990 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $437,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of F5 stock traded down $0.80 on Wednesday, reaching $182.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 84,967 shares, compared to its average volume of 430,765. The company has a market capitalization of $10.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.80, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.11. F5 has a 52-week low of $127.05 and a 52-week high of $199.49. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $188.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.23.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.39. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The firm had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $684.77 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that F5 will post 9.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.