Acadian Asset Management LLC Acquires 160,708 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in F5, Inc. by 24.0%, acquiring an additional 160,708 shares, bringing its total ownership to 828,966 shares valued at approximately $220.69 million.
• F5 reported earnings of $4.16 per share for the latest quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $3.49, alongside revenues of $780.37 million, up 12.2% year-over-year.
• Multiple analysts upgraded their ratings for F5, with Needham raising its target price from $320.00 to $345.00, stating a "buy" recommendation.

Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 24.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 828,966 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 160,708 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC owned approximately 1.44% of F5 worth $220,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of F5 by 288.1% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in F5 by 7.8% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 74,641 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $19,875,000 after acquiring an additional 5,382 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new position in F5 in the first quarter worth about $257,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in F5 in the first quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co purchased a new position in F5 in the first quarter worth about $2,663,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of F5 stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total transaction of $1,706,905.28. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. The trade was a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total transaction of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,411,101.27. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,945 shares of company stock worth $3,762,365. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of F5 stock traded down $12.92 on Friday, hitting $321.67. 439,874 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 380,601. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $310.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $287.96. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $206.10 and a 52 week high of $337.39. The company has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.36 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.240-15.380 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 3.870-3.990 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About F5

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.