Atom Investors LP Acquires Shares of 40,011 F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Atom Investors LP initiated a new position in F5, buying 40,011 shares worth about $10.2 million. The stake represents about 0.8% of its portfolio and makes F5 its 13th-largest holding.
• F5 reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.90 versus estimates of $3.47 and revenue of $811.7 million versus expectations of $783.82 million. Revenue rose 11% year over year, and the company also issued upbeat fiscal 2026 guidance.
• Despite the strong operating performance, the stock was down 2.0% in the session and insider selling continued, including share sales by the CFO and CEO. Analysts remain mixed overall, with the stock carrying an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $382.67.

Atom Investors LP acquired a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 40,011 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $10,213,000. F5 comprises about 0.8% of Atom Investors LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Atom Investors LP owned 0.07% of F5 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 109.8% during the 4th 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 bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 64.5% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 153 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Torren Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $388.85 on Wednesday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $352.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $300.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.90, a P/E/G ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 1.04. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $411.52.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $783.82 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business's revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 406 shares of the company's stock, valued at $162,400. This represents a 86.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total transaction of $1,276,346.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at $49,592,618.71. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860 over the last three months. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FFIV. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Evercore upgraded shares of F5 from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $382.67.

About F5

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.

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