abrdn plc Boosts Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

abrdn plc boosted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 23.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,576 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,117 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in F5 were worth $4,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Optimum Investment Advisors raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 1,150 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 15.9% in the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 518 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 36.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 10,457 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,872,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 16,496 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,658,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV stock opened at $181.94 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.70 billion, a PE ratio of 23.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $187.66 and its 200 day moving average is $176.39. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $129.93 and a one year high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $693.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.77 million. F5 had a net margin of 16.43% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, February 9th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective 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. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.22.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,886,789.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly 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 valued at $1,908,065 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.58% 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.