Morningstar Investment Management LLC Invests $222,000 in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Morningstar Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 884 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in F5 by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in F5 by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in F5 by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in F5 by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV opened at $309.93 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $274.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $239.51. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00.

F5 announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in 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 generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the firm’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 sale, the insider now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057 over the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.