Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 88,603 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 1,399 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.15% of F5 worth $22,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in F5 by 1,132.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 345 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of F5 by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 54,040 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $13,589,000 after acquiring an additional 3,345 shares during the period. Banque Pictet & Cie SA acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,670,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in F5 by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 33,063 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $8,452,000 after acquiring an additional 5,062 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in F5 by 457.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 31,375 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $7,899,000 after purchasing an additional 25,748 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

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Insider Transactions at F5

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 6,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.06, for a total value of $1,969,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,247 shares in the company, valued at $45,836,915.82. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,574 shares of company stock valued at $3,455,057 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FFIV. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on F5 from $285.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $304.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $262.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $295.00.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock traded down $3.85 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $290.97. The stock had a trading volume of 353,726 shares, compared to its average volume of 603,953. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.78 billion, a PE ratio of 28.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.06. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $277.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $243.27.

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.