13,975 Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Acquired by Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,975 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,514,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in F5 by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after purchasing an additional 16,663 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in F5 by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after purchasing an additional 117,080 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in F5 by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in F5 by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,124 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total transaction of $1,969,890.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. This trade represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,882 shares in the company, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,399 shares of company stock worth $3,652,867 over the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Down 0.1 %

F5 stock opened at $310.18 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $17.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $271.00 and a 200-day moving average of $237.39. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $312.76.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America upped their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays upped their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

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.