Short Interest in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Decreases By 31.2%

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,480,000 shares, a decline of 31.2% from the November 30th total of 2,150,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 581,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 2.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

F5 Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of FFIV stock traded down $1.49 on Friday, reaching $255.63. 212,240 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 531,149. F5 has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $264.50. The stock has a market cap of $14.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $244.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $211.47.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $237.11.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,875 shares of company stock valued at $644,889. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of F5

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 9,100.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. bought a new stake in F5 during the third quarter valued at $32,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth $56,000. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

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.