Panagora Asset Management Inc. Invests $206,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,149 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 754 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. Inceptionr LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $502,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in F5 by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,174 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 997 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 54,343 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $9,461,000 after buying an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 87,325 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,629,000 after acquiring an additional 10,948 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,504 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,597,385.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total value of $1,203,328.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,151 shares of company stock worth $2,047,453 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV stock opened at $169.90 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $180.74 and its 200 day moving average is $179.11. The firm has a market cap of $9.96 billion, a PE ratio of 20.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.14. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $142.16 and a one year high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.47 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.41% and a net margin of 17.91%. F5’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.70 EPS. Research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $185.10.

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.