State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Sells 6,798 Shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 24.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,189 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 6,798 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in F5 were worth $3,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of F5 by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 517,948 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $92,704,000 after purchasing an additional 49,562 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 87,325 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $15,629,000 after purchasing an additional 10,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 31.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 4,174 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 997 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its stake in shares of F5 by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 754 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter valued at $206,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on F5 from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com downgraded F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays lifted their target price on F5 from $189.00 to $214.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $200.89.

Insider Activity at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total transaction of $201,650.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.95, for a total transaction of $249,327.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,462 shares in the company, valued at $20,885,390.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,771 shares of company stock worth $1,463,205. 0.58% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $214.64 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $145.45 and a one year high of $216.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $191.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.58 billion, a PE ratio of 25.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.06.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The network technology company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $695.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $686.06 million. F5 had a net margin of 19.94% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The business’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.46 earnings per share. Analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 10.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About F5

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.