Bank of Nova Scotia Sells 151,160 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Bank of Nova Scotia trimmed its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 94.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,595 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 151,160 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia's holdings in F5 were worth $2,776,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in F5 in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $205,706,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of F5 by 127.0% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 34,529 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $8,814,000 after acquiring an additional 19,315 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter worth $6,469,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth $140,460,000. Finally, Tredje AP fonden raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 98.2% during the fourth quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 7,683 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 3,807 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FFIV. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $461.00 price target (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Evercore upgraded F5 from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $475.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $408.67.

F5 Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $403.46 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $435.00. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $401.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $331.76. The firm has a market cap of $22.76 billion, a PE ratio of 32.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.78 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.94%. The business had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $834.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.16 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total value of $1,006,636.59. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 12,194 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,930,492.02. The trade was a 20.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total value of $1,276,346.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at $49,592,618.71. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong Q3 results: F5 reported adjusted EPS of $4.73, well above the roughly $4.00 consensus, while revenue rose 10.9% year over year to $865.1 million versus expectations of $834.6 million. Product revenue grew 19%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit product growth. F5 Reports Third Quarter Results with 19% Product Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Guidance was raised: F5 forecast fourth-quarter EPS of $4.14-$4.26 and revenue of $870 million-$890 million, above analyst estimates of $3.95 EPS and $858 million revenue. Full-year fiscal 2026 EPS guidance of $17.21-$17.33 also exceeded the prior consensus estimate of $15.75. F5 raises annual revenue growth forecast again on strong cybersecurity demand
• Positive Sentiment: Demand trends remain favorable: Management cited strong cybersecurity demand, hybrid multicloud adoption, application-security growth and increasing AI-related network requirements. The performance prompted some analysts to raise estimates. F5's Systems revenue surges during Q3
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views are mixed: JPMorgan raised its price target to $515 and maintained an overweight rating, while Morgan Stanley raised its target to $415 but kept an equal-weight rating. Barclays lifted its target to $397 but also retained an equal-weight rating. Analysts increase forecasts on F5
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and margin concerns may limit enthusiasm: A recent analysis highlighted a cautious margin outlook despite AI and hybrid-cloud tailwinds, while the reported average analyst price target of $382.67 remains below the stock’s recent trading level. FFIV Q2 deep dive

F5 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.

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