Key Financial Inc Sells 200 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Key Financial Inc decreased its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,305 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in F5 were worth $328,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new position in shares of F5 during the third quarter valued at about $4,726,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of F5 by 24.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after purchasing an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its position in shares of F5 by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 194,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $48,991,000 after purchasing an additional 7,341 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of F5 by 14.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,532,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 36.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $539,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Bank of America lifted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $310.18 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $272.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $238.20. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $312.76. The company has a market capitalization of $17.99 billion, a PE ratio of 30.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.