Retirement Systems of Alabama Lowers Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Retirement Systems of Alabama reduced its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 96.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,388 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 343,815 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama's holdings in F5 were worth $3,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,544,256 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,897,154,000 after purchasing an additional 64,261 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,604,362 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $402,536,000 after purchasing an additional 30,367 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in F5 by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,259,848 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $316,814,000 after buying an additional 37,354 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in F5 by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 913,021 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $229,597,000 after buying an additional 251,534 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 34,698.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $198,661,000 after buying an additional 743,945 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of FFIV stock traded up $5.12 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $294.21. The company's stock had a trading volume of 67,578 shares, compared to its average volume of 556,598. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $169.42 and a one year high of $313.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.00. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $280.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $274.68.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.11 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $590.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.91 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.14% and a return on equity of 21.18%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $262.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays cut their target price on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $274.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $296.00 to $285.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $282.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 1,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.96, for a total value of $514,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,376 shares in the company, valued at $1,251,360.96. This trade represents a 29.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.37, for a total value of $344,981.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 148,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,446,454.39. The trade was a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,519 shares of company stock valued at $2,370,959. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Company 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.