Short Interest in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Drops By 31.2%

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,480,000 shares, a decline of 31.2% from the November 30th total of 2,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 581,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 2.6% of the company’s shares are short sold.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $3.15 on Monday, hitting $252.48. The stock had a trading volume of 253,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 530,044. The company has a market capitalization of $14.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $244.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $212.09. F5 has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $264.50.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,875 shares of company stock valued at $644,889 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its stake in 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 valued at $1,208,763,000 after acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in F5 by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,709,296 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $294,392,000 after buying an additional 162,820 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in F5 by 8.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 6,700.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 848,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $146,118,000 after acquiring an additional 835,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $237.11.

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.