F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,310,000 shares, a drop of 5.1% from the October 31st total of 1,380,000 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 452,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.
Insider Activity at F5
In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,508 shares in the company, valued at $5,526,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $425,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,508 shares in the company, valued at $5,526,360. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 279 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.84, for a total transaction of $45,990.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,811.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,778 shares of company stock worth $1,892,211. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5
A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $148,000. Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 234.6% in the 1st quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 174 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. West Tower Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in F5 in the 1st quarter valued at about $58,000. Finally, Clearstead Advisors LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 75.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 445 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. 89.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
F5 Price Performance
F5 stock opened at $172.60 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $157.97 and a 200-day moving average of $154.63. F5 has a one year low of $127.05 and a one year high of $172.76. The company has a market cap of $10.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.05.
F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The network technology company reported $3.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.21 by $0.29. F5 had a net margin of 14.04% and a return on equity of 19.14%. The company had revenue of $707.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $701.44 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.82 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that F5 will post 9.21 earnings per share for the current year.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
FFIV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America cut shares of F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 26th. TheStreet raised shares of F5 from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 22nd. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of F5 in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $162.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $167.75.
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.