Virtu Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 6,953 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 6,953 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,531,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the 1st quarter worth approximately $299,000. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 186.8% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $239,000 after buying an additional 904 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of F5 by 49.7% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Accordant Advisory Group Inc acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the second quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in F5 by 3.3% during the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 332,613 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $57,286,000 after acquiring an additional 10,551 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.56.

F5 Trading Up 0.6 %

FFIV stock opened at $261.57 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $236.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $204.69. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $263.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the business’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 transaction of $316,477.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,436,087.72. The trade was a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total transaction of $130,602.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. The trade was a 1.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,475 shares of company stock worth $775,389. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

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.