Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Grows Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 9.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 61,801 shares of the network technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,577 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in F5 were worth $11,061,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in F5 by 203.5% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 484,516 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $78,052,000 after purchasing an additional 324,886 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 13.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,812,095 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $292,001,000 after purchasing an additional 212,784 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its holdings in F5 by 3,545.5% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 172,977 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,874,000 after purchasing an additional 168,232 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its position in F5 by 42.0% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 370,910 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $59,768,000 after buying an additional 109,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new position in F5 during the third quarter worth $15,350,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.6 %

FFIV traded up $1.15 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $180.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 153,771 shares, compared to its average volume of 429,846. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $187.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.63 billion, a PE ratio of 23.35, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.11. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.93 and a fifty-two week high of $199.49.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $684.77 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 16.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.65 EPS. Research analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total transaction of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,747,364.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 851 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.06, for a total value of $155,784.06. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,747,364.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.85, for a total value of $273,832.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,801 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,002,118.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,701 shares of company stock valued at $1,818,660. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $204.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research report on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on F5 from $163.00 to $206.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $192.22.

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.