F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Sold by Shell Asset Management Co.

Shell Asset Management Co. cut its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,128 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 964 shares during the quarter. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in F5 were worth $4,307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $43,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $57,000. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $60,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Trading Up 0.4%

FFIV stock opened at $282.67 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.45 and a 52 week high of $313.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $264.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $265.60.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $290.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $282.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,558,159.80. The trade was a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total transaction of $488,067.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $314,689.04. This represents a 60.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 9,305 shares of company stock worth $2,561,360. Insiders own 0.52% 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.