F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by Sterling Capital Management LLC

Sterling Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 13.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,661 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 3,463 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in F5 were worth $6,267,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth $579,699,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of F5 by 15,103.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $298,709,000 after buying an additional 1,162,519 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 68.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $702,897,000 after buying an additional 1,119,291 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $205,706,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in F5 by 175.2% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $244,781,000 after acquiring an additional 610,437 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total transaction of $1,276,346.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,592,618.71. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.19, for a total value of $2,171,178.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 20,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,295,158.08. This trade represents a 22.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on FFIV. Evercore upgraded shares of F5 from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Barclays increased their price target on F5 from $292.00 to $386.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised F5 from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $382.67.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $394.53 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $366.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $307.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 1.04. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $223.76 and a 1-year high of $411.52.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $783.82 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.