F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp cut its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,218 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 107 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in F5 by 9,100.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 49.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $263.36 on Tuesday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $264.50. The company has a market capitalization of $15.44 billion, a PE ratio of 27.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $238.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $206.52.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. The trade was a 1.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,436,087.72. This represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock worth $775,389 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price objective 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 increased their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note 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 data from MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

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.