F5, Inc. $FFIV Stake Lowered by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 54.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,766 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 3,343 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in F5 were worth $813,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. MGO One Seven LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 0.8% in the second quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,450,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its position in F5 by 2.5% during the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,805 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $481,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in F5 by 2.6% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,834 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Ethic Inc. increased its position in F5 by 0.5% during the second quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 9,849 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,913,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC increased its position in F5 by 6.3% during the first quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 845 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $225,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $320.61, for a total transaction of $416,793.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 107,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,482,567.33. This trade represents a 1.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total value of $417,206.31. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 10,645 shares of company stock valued at $3,395,960 in the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $352.00 to $336.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $355.00 to $277.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.56.

F5 Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $253.05 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.43, a P/E/G ratio of 7.53 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $315.24 and its 200-day moving average is $299.73. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.04 and a 52-week high of $346.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.56.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.43. F5 had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 22.42%.The business had revenue of $810.09 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $794.06 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.67 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.500-15.500 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.850 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 Company Profile

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.