F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Stock Position Increased by Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 30.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 266,443 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 61,937 shares during the quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.’s holdings in F5 were worth $67,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter valued at $61,386,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in F5 by 1,681.1% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 285,639 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $62,898,000 after purchasing an additional 269,602 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,090,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on FFIV. Evercore ISI upped their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.38.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $300.46 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $17.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $258.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $226.55. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $308.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.