Cetera Investment Advisers Purchases 677 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 19.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,180 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 677 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in F5 were worth $1,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 275.0% in the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $60,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in F5 by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $92,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This represents a 11.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,519 shares of company stock worth $2,520,097 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

F5 Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $318.11 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $298.88 and a 200-day moving average of $284.80. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $188.51 and a 12-month high of $334.00. The firm has a market cap of $18.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.03, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.36 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

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.