F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) EVP Chad Michael Whalen Sells 6,950 Shares of Stock

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) EVP Chad Whalen sold 6,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.56, for a total transaction of $2,290,442.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 25,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,392,904.52. This trade represents a 21.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

F5 Stock Down 5.5%

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $311.74 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $483.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.59. The company has a market cap of $17.65 billion, a PE ratio of 24.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $423.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $363.77.

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

F5 announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research lowered F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on F5 from $525.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 price objective on F5 in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $443.00.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Negative Sentiment: Seven insiders, including F5’s CFO, CTOs and EVPs, sold shares in transactions dated November 3–4. The sales totaled about $7.2 million; several executives reduced their individual holdings substantially. The cluster of sales may weigh on sentiment, although the pre-arranged plans temper the signal. See the SEC filings: Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More. and Read More..

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth approximately $2,611,637,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in F5 by 23.9% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 732,219 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $325,969,000 after purchasing an additional 141,131 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in F5 by 24.8% in the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 726,844 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $302,338,000 after purchasing an additional 144,534 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at $243,865,000. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in F5 by 96.0% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 555,809 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $231,194,000 after purchasing an additional 272,273 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.