Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Acquires New Shares in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,693 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,683,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of F5 by 0.5% during the third 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 grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $345,560,000 after buying an additional 117,080 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after buying an additional 81,005 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its position in shares of F5 by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,101,000 after buying an additional 27,124 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $307.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $17.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $308.32. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $264.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $231.30.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total value of $75,206.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,452. This trade represents a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total transaction of $1,188,320.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,915,557.12. The trade was a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,899 shares of company stock valued at $1,682,977 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Bank of America upped 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

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.