F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Up 9.9% in April

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the March 31st total of 1,710,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 443,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.2 days. Approximately 3.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

F5 Stock Up 0.8 %

FFIV stock opened at $166.62 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $187.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.82. The stock has a market cap of $9.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.95, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $129.93 and a fifty-two week high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a return on equity of 21.72% and a net margin of 17.91%. The company had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5 will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $167.00 price objective (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays cut their price objective on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $185.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 32,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,886,789.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in F5 by 44.9% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 10,373 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,672,000 after purchasing an additional 3,215 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 27,477 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,428,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in F5 by 41.3% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,300 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,821,000 after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 3,981 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $642,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in F5 by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 214,486 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $34,562,000 after purchasing an additional 23,681 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% 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.