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

Kentucky Retirement Systems decreased its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 8.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,060 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 357 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in F5 were worth $894,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in F5 by 2.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC increased its stake in F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in F5 by 6.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in F5 by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,231 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,862,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares in the company, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The trade was a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,750 shares of company stock valued at $799,229. 0.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.56.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $239.67 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $13.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.07, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $224.29 and its 200 day moving average is $195.51. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $159.01 and a 1-year high of $250.46.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the network technology company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.