F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Holdings Cut by Monarch Capital Management Inc.

Monarch Capital Management Inc. decreased its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 7.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,786 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 1,255 shares during the quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $3,937,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its position in F5 by 19.5% in the first quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 24,487 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $6,512,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in F5 by 30.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $746,000 after acquiring an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in F5 by 6.6% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 75,232 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $20,032,000 after acquiring an additional 4,660 shares in the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the first quarter worth approximately $437,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 84.1% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,395 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $643,000 after buying an additional 1,094 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,919 shares in the company, valued at $2,843,678.11. The trade was a 11.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total transaction of $488,067.84. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares in the company, valued at $314,689.04. The trade was a 60.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,891 shares of company stock worth $2,418,732 in the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $282.56.

F5 Trading Down 0.4%

FFIV opened at $293.66 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.67 and a 1-year high of $313.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $271.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $271.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.87 billion, a PE ratio of 29.19, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00.

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

F5 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.