Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Has $8.92 Million Stock Position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 33.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,480 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in F5 were worth $8,922,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of F5 by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,607 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in F5 by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,598 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $572,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in F5 by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust grew its holdings in F5 by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,091 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley increased 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. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

F5 Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $295.56 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.04 billion, a PE ratio of 29.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $159.01 and a 1 year high of $313.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $275.62 and its 200-day moving average is $241.47.

F5 announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 4,093 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,264 shares in the company, valued at $7,915,557.12. This represents a 13.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by 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.