Linscomb Wealth Inc. Invests $2.09 Million in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Linscomb Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 9,509 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,094,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its position in F5 by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. increased its position in F5 by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its position in F5 by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $233.56.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total transaction of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total transaction of $98,365.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,123,221.25. This trade represents a 1.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $238.36 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $222.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $194.07. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $159.01 and a 52-week high of $250.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $730.43 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

F5 Profile

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.