LPL Financial LLC Raises Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 44.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,328 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 9,079 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned approximately 0.05% of F5 worth $7,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 275.0% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $60,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in F5 by 31.4% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 314.8% in the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 365 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Up 1.4%

FFIV opened at $321.77 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $188.31 and a 52 week high of $334.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $298.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $284.48. The firm has a market cap of $18.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total value of $514,728.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,251,360.96. This represents a 29.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total transaction of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. This represents a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,520,097 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.