M&T Bank Corp Cuts Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

M&T Bank Corp lessened its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 26.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,507 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 901 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,897,154,000 after purchasing an additional 64,261 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $402,536,000 after acquiring an additional 30,367 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $316,814,000 after acquiring an additional 37,354 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in F5 by 38.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $229,597,000 after acquiring an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 34,698.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $198,661,000 after acquiring an additional 743,945 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wolfe Research started coverage on F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $286.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,471,465.89. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total value of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This trade represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,408,594. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Stock Down 1.2%

FFIV stock opened at $290.76 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $289.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $278.44. The stock has a market cap of $16.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $170.21 and a 52-week high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a return on equity of 21.18% and a net margin of 21.14%. The business had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $719.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

F5 Company 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.