KBC Group NV Raises Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 14.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,041 shares of the network technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,183 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned 0.06% of F5 worth $9,725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,387,700 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,434,583,000 after purchasing an additional 312,415 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 15.5% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,054,701 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $280,835,000 after buying an additional 141,680 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 24.0% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 828,966 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $220,693,000 after buying an additional 160,708 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of F5 by 37.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 828,900 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $216,757,000 after buying an additional 226,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in F5 by 40.8% during the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 789,283 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $232,302,000 after acquiring an additional 228,790 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FFIV shares. Bank of America reduced their target price on F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Evercore ISI reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of F5 from $350.00 to $315.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of F5 from $352.00 to $336.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.56.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $234.00 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.53 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $300.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $298.17. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $227.04 and a twelve month high of $346.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 1,062 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.97, for a total transaction of $262,282.14. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 8,318 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.78, for a total value of $2,077,670.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,618,301.54. This trade represents a 27.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 24,117 shares of company stock worth $6,297,504 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

F5 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.