F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) CTO Michael Montoya Sells 4,426 Shares

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.16, for a total transaction of $1,815,368.16. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $536,899.44. This trade represents a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $430.88 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.31, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $403.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $363.13. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $435.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a return on equity of 21.54% and a net margin of 21.95%.The company had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $834.60 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.16 EPS. F5’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. Analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the second quarter worth $2,611,637,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at $579,699,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $205,706,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 in the 2nd quarter worth $243,865,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in F5 during the 2nd quarter worth $208,277,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI-powered bot protection: F5 added device intelligence and specialized agentic-AI detection to its Distributed Cloud Bot Defense platform. The features are designed to identify automated account abuse, maintain persistent device context and continuously assess risk, potentially improving customer protection against increasingly sophisticated attacks. F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Broader AI security push: Reports highlight F5’s addition of AI guardrails and bot defenses as enterprises adopt AI and face rising security, fraud and governance risks. Investors may view these capabilities as a way for F5 to deepen customer relationships and create longer-term competitive differentiation. F5 adds AI guardrails and bot defenses
• Neutral Sentiment: Execution remains important: The AI-security initiatives could support future growth, but the reports do not provide details on incremental revenue, customer adoption or financial guidance. Investors will likely look for evidence that the new features translate into broader bookings and recurring revenue. F5 AI security competitive analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: CTO Michael Montoya sold 4,426 shares, reducing his direct holdings by about 77%, while John Maddison sold 204 shares. Both transactions were conducted under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, which reduces their signaling value, but the sales may still weigh modestly on sentiment. F5 insider stock sales

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research lowered shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $416.62.

About F5

F5, Inc is a technology company that provides application delivery, security and traffic-management solutions for enterprises, service providers and government organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers ensure the availability, performance and security of applications across on-premises data centers, public clouds and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud Services.