Short Interest in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Drops By 23.9%

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in January. As of January 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,312,144 shares, a drop of 23.9% from the January 15th total of 3,037,580 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,438,938 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days. Currently, 4.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Currently, 4.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,438,938 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV traded up $11.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $273.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 586,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,047,024. F5 has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $346.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $266.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $285.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.76 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on FFIV. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of F5 from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Evercore reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $309.89.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research raised several near‑term and multi‑year EPS forecasts for F5 (including FY2026–FY2028 and certain quarterly tweaks), which supports upside to consensus earnings expectations and helped sentiment. Zacks estimates summary
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying reported in Q4 (notable positions added by Northwestern Mutual, Norges Bank, Deutsche Bank and UBS) signals strong fund conviction and may underpin the share price. Institutional ownership details
• Positive Sentiment: F5’s January quarter earlier this year beat EPS and revenue estimates and management set FY26 guidance above some expectations — a fundamental driver supporting the recent rally. Quarterly results and guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest reporting for mid‑February shows anomalous zero values in some feeds (likely a reporting glitch); treat the strange numbers cautiously and rely on the January short‑interest snapshot instead.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have filed or are soliciting lead‑plaintiff claims in a securities class action alleging F5 misled investors about security issues in its BIG‑IP products (claims reference an alleged long‑term undetected intrusion). The Feb. 17 lead‑plaintiff deadline is driving a cluster of notices and heightening litigation risk and reputational uncertainty. Hagens Berman filing GlobeNewswire notice
• Negative Sentiment: Clustered insider selling disclosed Feb. 10 (including sales by the CTO and multiple EVPs) can spook investors even if sales are for diversification/liquidity — review the Form 4s for context. SEC Form 4

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 199 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.37, for a total value of $55,992.63. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,802.49. The trade was a 52.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John Anthony Maddison sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.66, for a total value of $280,660.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 2,925 shares in the company, valued at $820,930.50. This represents a 25.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 20,301 shares of company stock valued at $5,204,053 over the last quarter. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its position in F5 by 275.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in F5 by 109.8% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

F5 Company 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.