OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp Cuts Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp cut its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 35.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,079 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 4,487 shares during the quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,032,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in F5 by 598.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 425,275 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $106,944,000 after purchasing an additional 364,372 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in F5 by 38.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $229,597,000 after purchasing an additional 251,534 shares during the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $59,623,000. Finally, Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth $53,212,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Up 0.4%

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $282.67 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $264.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $265.60. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.45 and a 52 week high of $313.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by $0.31. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business had revenue of $590.16 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $719.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $282.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total transaction of $344,981.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,446,454.39. The trade was a 0.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.03, for a total value of $362,383.41. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,558,159.80. This trade represents a 6.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,305 shares of company stock valued at $2,561,360 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.