Kentucky Retirement Systems Reduces Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Kentucky Retirement Systems decreased its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,005 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 55 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in F5 were worth $1,007,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 79.8% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 783.3% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 318 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 282 shares during the period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $84,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in shares of F5 by 1,132.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 317 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $295.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. The trade was a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 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 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. Insiders sold a total of 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $293.21 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $276.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $242.20. The company has a market cap of $16.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $313.00.

F5 announced that its board has initiated 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.