Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Decreases Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,118 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 219 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in F5 were worth $784,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 3.6% in the 3rd 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 in 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 valued at $701,825,000 after buying an additional 16,663 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 117,080 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in F5 by 24.7% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in F5 by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 377,387 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $83,101,000 after acquiring an additional 27,124 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 $274.31 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $284.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $253.12. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $313.00. The company has a market cap of $15.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business’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. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total value of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares in the company, valued at $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,932 shares of company stock worth $4,965,150 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on FFIV. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.00.

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.