The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Reduces Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,503 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 345 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in F5 were worth $10,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $294,392,000 after acquiring an additional 162,820 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 6,700.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $146,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 48.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 652,972 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $111,932,000 after purchasing an additional 214,351 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in F5 by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 598,605 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $103,096,000 after buying an additional 48,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in F5 by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 523,982 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,245,000 after buying an additional 45,843 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FFIV. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. The trade was a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039 over the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $251.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $230.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $200.39. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $253.62.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About F5

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.