F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Update

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the March 31st total of 1,710,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 443,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days. Approximately 3.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $204.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $192.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $182.31, for a total transaction of $91,155.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 32,290 shares in the company, valued at $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,201 shares of company stock worth $1,908,065 over the last 90 days. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 776.6% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 36,424 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $6,906,000 after acquiring an additional 32,269 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of F5 by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 89,991 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $17,061,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in F5 by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 56,046 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $10,626,000 after buying an additional 2,036 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $208,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in F5 by 49.9% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 23,441 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,444,000 after buying an additional 7,805 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $182.13 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.72. The company has a market capitalization of $10.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. F5 has a 1 year low of $129.93 and a 1 year high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 EPS. Equities analysts expect that F5 will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

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.