F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Update

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, a drop of 17.9% from the January 31st total of 1,840,000 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 555,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days.

F5 Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $3.74 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $276.37. 138,145 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 603,172. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.93 billion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10. F5 has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $280.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.28.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total value of $1,022,025.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,885,588.50. This represents a 14.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,060 shares of company stock worth $4,477,083 over the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in F5 by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,897,154,000 after buying an additional 64,261 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 3.6% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after acquiring an additional 16,663 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $402,536,000 after purchasing an additional 30,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in F5 by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $316,814,000 after purchasing an additional 37,354 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.