Retirement Systems of Alabama Buys 27,124 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 7.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 377,387 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 27,124 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned 0.64% of F5 worth $83,101,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of F5 by 9,100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 184 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the period. Kathleen S. Wright Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 49.7% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 241 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 825 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.77, for a total transaction of $197,810.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,369,407.14. This trade represents a 7.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,475 shares of company stock valued at $775,389 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $261.81. 564,482 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 534,335. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $264.50. The firm's 50 day moving average is $236.56 and its 200-day moving average is $204.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.45 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. F5 had a net margin of 20.13% and a return on equity of 20.80%. F5's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. Analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 EPS for the current year.

F5 announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to reacquire up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $233.56.

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.