New York State Common Retirement Fund Reduces Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 65,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 5,000 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in F5 were worth $16,480,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth about $84,000. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth about $99,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FFIV. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective 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. Evercore ISI upped their target price on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $295.56 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $275.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $241.47. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $313.00.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program 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 programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.33, for a total value of $1,188,320.69. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at $7,915,557.12. This trade represents a 13.05 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057 in the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.