AIA Group Ltd Acquires Shares of 1,937 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

AIA Group Ltd purchased a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,937 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Addison Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 36.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 56.4% in the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Headinvest LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth $65,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total value of $273,832.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,801 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,002,118.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total transaction of $273,832.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,801 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,002,118.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,705 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $186.82.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV opened at $177.33 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $127.05 and a fifty-two week high of $199.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.43 billion, a PE ratio of 23.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50-day moving average is $187.93 and its 200 day moving average is $175.41.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.39. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The company had revenue of $693.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.77 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 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.