Federated Hermes Inc. Boosts Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 30.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 208,987 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 48,488 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.36% of F5 worth $67,543,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of F5 by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,172,614 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $933,764,000 after buying an additional 48,057 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,741,117 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $511,016,000 after purchasing an additional 64,420 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of F5 by 5.8% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,615,555 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $475,490,000 after purchasing an additional 87,923 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 839,561 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $271,338,000 after purchasing an additional 50,278 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter valued at about $207,492,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on FFIV. Zacks Research raised F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $267.00 to $283.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $292.30 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.75, a P/E/G ratio of 8.48 and a beta of 0.98. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $346.00. The company’s fifty day moving average is $257.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $286.92.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. F5 had a net margin of 22.45% and a return on equity of 22.20%. The firm had revenue of $822.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $755.97 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.340-3.460 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 15.650-16.050 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 beat Q1 expectations and raised guidance — reported $4.45 EPS vs. ~$3.63 consensus and $822.5M revenue vs. ~$756M; company raised FY26 EPS guidance to 15.65–16.05 and Q2 EPS to 3.34–3.46, driving the rally. Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: RBC Capital raised its price target to $345 and maintained an outperform rating — implies meaningful upside (~18% from recent levels) and supports further upside momentum. RBC PT Raise
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded FFIV to a #1 (Strong Buy), adding sell-side optimism to the post-earnings momentum. Zacks Upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays raised its price target modestly to $283 but kept an equal-weight rating — a mild offset to bullish activity. Barclays Note
• Neutral Sentiment: An F5 EVP sold 3,343 shares at ~$261.87 (SEC Form 4 filed). Insider sales can be neutral/benign but are monitored by investors. SEC Form 4
• Neutral Sentiment: Post-earnings commentary (e.g., Seeking Alpha) points to strong systems/product demand and AI tailwinds but also flags margin pressure from memory costs and competitive/operational risks — suggests a wait-on-valuation posture for some investors. Seeking Alpha Analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have issued investor alerts and are soliciting plaintiffs in securities-class actions tied to a prior material cybersecurity incident and an earlier stock decline; deadlines to seek lead-plaintiff status are approaching — this raises legal and reputational risk that could weigh on the stock. Hagens Berman Alert Rosen Notice

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total value of $310,376.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,041,517.10. This trade represents a 13.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 9,436 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.77, for a total transaction of $2,356,829.72. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 25,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,404,352.57. This trade represents a 26.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 37,158 shares of company stock worth $9,319,717. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 Profile

F5 Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) specializes in application services and delivery networking, helping organizations ensure the availability, performance and security of their applications. The company’s core offerings include advanced load balancing, traffic management and application security solutions designed to optimize user experiences and protect against threats such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and web application exploits.

At the heart of F5’s product portfolio is the BIG-IP platform, which provides a suite of software modules for local and global traffic management, secure web application firewalling and DNS service delivery.