Touchstone Capital Inc. Lowers Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Touchstone Capital Inc. reduced its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 55,626 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 1,024 shares during the quarter. F5 comprises 9.5% of Touchstone Capital Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Touchstone Capital Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $9,956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. West Tower Group LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 36.1% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, Headinvest LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $65,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.09, for a total value of $90,045.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,508 shares in the company, valued at $5,674,275.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,751 shares of company stock valued at $1,634,872 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $189.59 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $127.05 and a 12 month high of $199.49. The stock has a market cap of $11.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $186.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.29.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.39. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The firm had revenue of $693.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $684.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 9.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.00.

F5 Company 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.