Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Decreases Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 72.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,114 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 123,791 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.08% of F5 worth $12,545,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FFIV. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. 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 raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $57,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 148,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,272 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.69, for a total transaction of $364,669.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,843,678.11. This trade represents a 11.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,370,959. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $286.61 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.49, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $274.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $272.38. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $165.68 and a 1 year high of $313.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $282.56.

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.