Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 3,600 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 3,600 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 56.4% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 258 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 36.1% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 279 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Headinvest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the third quarter worth approximately $65,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total transaction of $89,405.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,594,964.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.02, for a total transaction of $1,203,328.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 123,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,173,653.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.81, for a total value of $89,405.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,594,964.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,201 shares of company stock valued at $1,908,065. Insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on F5 from $197.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on F5 from $170.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on F5 from $156.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $192.22.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $181.94 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 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. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $187.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.53.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The network technology company reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $693.00 million for 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%. F5’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 9.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.