Leeward Investments LLC MA Sells 2,258 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Leeward Investments LLC MA cut its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 83,789 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 2,258 shares during the quarter. Leeward Investments LLC MA’s holdings in F5 were worth $14,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 203.5% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,052,000 after buying an additional 324,886 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 13.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after buying an additional 212,784 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in F5 by 3,545.5% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 172,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,874,000 after buying an additional 168,232 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in F5 by 42.0% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 370,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $59,768,000 after buying an additional 109,666 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at approximately $15,350,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $181.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.66, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day moving average is $187.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.26. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $129.93 and a 1-year high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.39. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The company had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.77 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. F5’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total value of $91,155.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,886,789.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on FFIV. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 target price on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, February 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. 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. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $192.22.

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.