Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Lowers Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lessened its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 18.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 984 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 229 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $247,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in F5 by 79.8% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth about $84,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $297.26 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $260.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $227.89. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $308.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.00.

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.