First Trust Advisors LP Boosts Stake in F5, Inc. $FFIV

First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 1.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,806 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned 2.84% of F5 worth $528,209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FFIV. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of F5 by 166.5% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 62,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $16,750,000 after buying an additional 39,305 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 1,281.4% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $257,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in F5 by 38.4% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 298,297 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,428,000 after acquiring an additional 82,835 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new position in F5 during the 1st quarter valued at about $257,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in F5 by 288.1% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Trading Up 0.9%

F5 stock opened at $286.22 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $272.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.18. The stock has a market cap of $16.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.01. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.82. F5 had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 22.45%.The firm had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.84 earnings per share. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.340-3.460 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 15.650-16.050 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,755 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.53, for a total transaction of $1,064,655.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 150,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,621,080.19. This trade represents a 2.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,770 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.25, for a total value of $487,192.50. Following the sale, the director owned 6,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,882,710. The trade was a 20.56% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,923 shares of company stock worth $6,500,773. Insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 price target (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of F5 from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $295.00 to $345.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of F5 from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.89.

About F5

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.