Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC Acquires 191,020 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the period. F5 accounts for 4.0% of Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC owned about 0.09% of F5 worth $1,208,763,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 49.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock worth $977,039. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $250.35 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $229.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $198.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a PE ratio of 26.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $252.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

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