Banque Pictet & Cie SA Makes New Investment in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA bought a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 18,572 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,670,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 3.6% in the third 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 buying an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in F5 by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after buying an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after buying an additional 117,080 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in F5 by 24.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after buying an additional 81,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in shares of F5 by 7.7% in the third 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. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $310.18 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $159.01 and a 12 month high of $312.76. The stock has a market cap of $17.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $271.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $236.90.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total value of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This represents a 7.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This trade represents a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,399 shares of company stock valued at $3,652,867. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.