Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Takes $216,000 Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. purchased a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 858 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of FFIV. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $171,127,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 598.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 38.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,623,000. Finally, Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,212,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $284.92 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.36 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.00. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.45 and a twelve month high of $313.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $264.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $266.10.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 20.98%. F5’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 1,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.72, for a total value of $488,067.84. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $314,689.04. This represents a 60.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.54, for a total transaction of $343,902.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,700 shares in the company, valued at $40,130,718. This trade represents a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 9,305 shares of company stock valued at $2,561,360. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $320.00 price target on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $269.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $282.56.

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.