Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 90,002 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,614 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $19,818,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in F5 by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its stake in F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in F5 by 0.6% in the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its position in F5 by 6.3% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $242.05 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $221.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $193.68. The company has a market cap of $14.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.32, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. Analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 10.99 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total value of $98,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 1.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock valued at $897,594 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.