F5, Inc. $FFIV Stock Holdings Lessened by Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.

Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 21.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 115,800 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 32,490 shares during the period. F5 makes up about 2.1% of Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. owned 0.20% of F5 worth $51,552,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Mather Group LLC. raised its position in F5 by 2.5% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,365 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $608,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Optas LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 3,718 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,076,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $915,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board lifted its position in shares of F5 by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board now owns 1,733 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $771,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Thomas Fountain sold 1,208 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.63, for a total transaction of $500,873.04. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,341,917.80. This trade represents a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Michael F. Montoya sold 4,426 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $536,899.44. The trade was a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 9,620 shares of company stock worth $3,958,962. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $338.34 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $223.76 and a 52 week high of $483.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $428.63 and its 200 day moving average is $362.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.00, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.26 by $0.16. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.00%. The firm had revenue of $917.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $884.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.39 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 27th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

F5 News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 authorized an additional $1.5 billion share repurchase program, bringing total available buyback capacity to approximately $1.8 billion, or about 9% of its market value. The authorization could support earnings per share and provide demand for the stock following its sell-off. Share Buyback Program Announced by F5
• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $917 million and adjusted earnings of $4.42 per share, exceeding analyst expectations. AI-related bookings surpassed $100 million and increased roughly 300% year over year, indicating continued demand for AI data-delivery solutions. F5 Beat on Revenue and Still Dropped
• Positive Sentiment: Technical analysts say the stock is now oversold after its recent decline, while upward earnings-estimate revisions could support a potential trend reversal. Morgan Stanley, Barclays and RBC also raised their price targets or maintained a constructive outlook. F5 May See a Trend Reversal
• Positive Sentiment: F5 and Oracle announced a collaboration focused on strengthening application security for AI-era workloads, potentially improving F5’s enterprise and cloud-security opportunities. F5 and Oracle Collaborate

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler lowered F5 from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $461.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings raised shares of F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Friday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $443.00.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc (NASDAQ: FFIV) provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.