F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Up 9.9% in April

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the March 31st total of 1,710,000 shares. Approximately 3.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 443,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total transaction of $89,405.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in F5 by 28.1% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 89,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $17,045,000 after purchasing an additional 19,746 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in F5 by 10.6% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 84,242 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $14,602,000 after purchasing an additional 8,058 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the first quarter worth about $317,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in F5 by 6.6% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,965,000 after purchasing an additional 642 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 776.6% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 36,424 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,906,000 after purchasing an additional 32,269 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $166.62 on Thursday. F5 has a 1 year low of $129.93 and a 1 year high of $199.49. The company has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $187.30 and a 200 day moving average of $176.82.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.72%. The company had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. F5’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $185.10.

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.