Amundi Raises Stake in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Amundi's Investment: Amundi increased its stake in F5, Inc. by 4.7%, acquiring an additional 11,138 shares, bringing its total ownership to 247,264 shares valued at approximately $62 million.
• Analyst Upgrades: Multiple analysts have raised their price targets for F5, with Piper Sandler increasing the target from $304 to $355 and Needham & Company raising it from $320 to $345, while the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold."
• Insider Trading: Key executives at F5, including EVP Chad Michael Whalen and CEO Francois Locoh-Donou, sold shares recently, which raised concerns about insider sentiment, as they collectively divested over $2 million worth of stock.

Amundi boosted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 4.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 247,264 shares of the network technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 11,138 shares during the period. Amundi owned 0.43% of F5 worth $62,058,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FFIV. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 34,698.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 746,089 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $198,661,000 after purchasing an additional 743,945 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of F5 by 6.2% during the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,387,700 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,434,583,000 after purchasing an additional 312,415 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in shares of F5 by 110.4% during the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 560,493 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $149,242,000 after purchasing an additional 294,050 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of F5 by 659.3% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 316,992 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $84,405,000 after purchasing an additional 275,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth about $46,920,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price 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 increased their target price on F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $309.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 2,701 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.57, for a total transaction of $855,055.57. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total value of $400,582.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,942,545.42. The trade was a 1.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,945 shares of company stock worth $3,762,365 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock traded down $12.92 on Friday, reaching $321.67. The company had a trading volume of 439,874 shares, compared to its average volume of 380,601. The firm has a market cap of $18.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.08. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $310.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $287.96. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $206.10 and a 1 year high of $337.39.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.64 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.36 EPS. 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, analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

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.