F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Shares Bought by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 149,891 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,032 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.26% of F5 worth $37,693,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,726,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $90,090,000 after buying an additional 81,005 shares in the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 194,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $48,991,000 after buying an additional 7,341 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,532,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 36.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $539,000 after buying an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $308.39 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $17.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.66, a PEG ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $310.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $267.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $234.93.

F5 declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total transaction of $221,639.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $538,876.50. This represents a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 253 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.26, for a total transaction of $75,206.78. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,452. The trade was a 55.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,899 shares of company stock worth $1,682,977. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.00.

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.