State of Michigan Retirement System Trims Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

State of Michigan Retirement System reduced its holdings in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,188 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in F5 were worth $3,638,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Atlantic Edge Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Register Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of F5 by 56.4% during the 4th quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FFIV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Barclays lowered their target price on F5 from $206.00 to $189.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (down from $187.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $200.00 to $180.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $204.00 to $182.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $185.10.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total transaction of $142,568.03. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,597,385.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.53, for a total value of $142,568.03. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,597,385.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,315 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.46, for a total value of $558,444.90. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,493 shares in the company, valued at $3,283,790.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,316 shares of company stock worth $1,742,867. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $172.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $10.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $170.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $179.38. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.16 and a 12-month high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The network technology company reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $685.47 million. F5 had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 21.41%. F5’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 9.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.