Sterling Capital Management LLC Trims Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Sterling Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 66,304 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 6,198 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC owned about 0.11% of F5 worth $16,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 203 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $257.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays upped their price target on F5 from $246.00 to $296.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on F5 from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on F5 from $310.00 to $269.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $285.78.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Marianne Budnik sold 728 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.45, for a total value of $221,639.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,770 shares in the company, valued at $538,876.50. The trade was a 29.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scot Frazier Rogers sold 3,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.18, for a total transaction of $1,022,025.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,075 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,885,588.50. This trade represents a 14.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,232 shares of company stock valued at $5,310,131. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Down 1.4 %

FFIV stock traded down $3.74 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $259.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 155,931 shares, compared to its average volume of 575,529. The company's 50 day moving average is $277.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $258.47. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $159.01 and a fifty-two week high of $313.00. The stock has a market cap of $14.98 billion, a PE ratio of 25.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.14.

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.