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

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,480,000 shares, a drop of 31.2% from the November 30th total of 2,150,000 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 581,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded down $3.15 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $252.48. 253,951 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 530,044. The company has a market cap of $14.80 billion, a PE ratio of 26.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06. F5 has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $264.50. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $244.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $212.09.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that F5 will post 11.01 earnings per share 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 reacquire up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $237.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,492,007.75. This trade represents a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,875 shares of company stock valued at $644,889 in the last three months. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in 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 last quarter. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new position in F5 in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $66,000. 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.