Insider Selling: F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) CEO Sells 1,450 Shares of Stock

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.11, for a total value of $243,759.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 124,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,906,495.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Francois Locoh-Donou also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, April 3rd, Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of F5 stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total value of $273,832.50.
• On Friday, March 1st, Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of F5 stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total value of $1,203,328.00.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $0.26 on Tuesday, hitting $168.32. 351,254 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 474,735. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $133.00 and a 1-year high of $199.49. The company has a market capitalization of $9.90 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $185.87 and its 200 day moving average is $177.25.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. The company had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.47 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 9.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.10.

Institutional Trading of F5

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in F5 by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,435,868 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,330,872,000 after buying an additional 131,341 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $292,001,000 after acquiring an additional 212,784 shares during the period. Lyrical Asset Management LP raised its position in F5 by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP now owns 1,145,302 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,986,000 after purchasing an additional 317,263 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in F5 by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,122,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $200,994,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its position in F5 by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 748,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $120,552,000 after purchasing an additional 44,758 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.