Element Capital Management LLC Acquires Shares of 9,996 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Element Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,996 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,662,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 134.1% in the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 275.0% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $60,000. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 31.4% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $309.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. This trade represents a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total transaction of $514,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,251,360.96. This trade represents a 29.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,227,002 in the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of F5 stock opened at $318.50 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $193.70 and a 12-month high of $334.00. The stock has a market cap of $18.30 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average of $300.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $285.75.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The company had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $750.64 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.36 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS 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.