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

Kentucky Retirement Systems trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,005 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in F5 were worth $1,007,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,489,388 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,208,763,000 after purchasing an additional 191,020 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of F5 by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,187,222 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $701,825,000 after acquiring an additional 16,663 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,573,995 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $345,560,000 after acquiring an additional 117,080 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of F5 by 24.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 409,130 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $90,090,000 after acquiring an additional 81,005 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its position in shares of F5 by 7.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $83,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,124 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Down 0.8 %

FFIV opened at $293.21 on Tuesday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $159.01 and a twelve month high of $313.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $276.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $242.20. The company has a market cap of $16.90 billion, a PE ratio of 29.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,574 shares of company stock worth $3,455,057. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

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.