BNP Paribas Financial Markets Has $32.55 Million Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• BNP Paribas Financial Markets cut its F5 stake by 16.5% in the fourth quarter, but still held 127,523 shares worth about $32.55 million at the end of the period.
• Several other large institutional investors also adjusted positions in F5, and institutions overall own 90.66% of the company’s shares. Notable buyers included Vanguard, State Street, and UBS Group.
• F5 reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.90 beating estimates and revenue up 11% year over year. The stock recently traded near its 52-week high, while analysts currently have a consensus rating of Hold with a target price of $379.89.

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lessened its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 127,523 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 25,118 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned 0.23% of F5 worth $32,552,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in F5 by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,878,023,000 after buying an additional 114,533 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in F5 by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,042,716,000 after buying an additional 53,712 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in F5 by 1.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $528,209,000 after buying an additional 18,806 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in F5 by 15,103.5% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $298,709,000 after buying an additional 1,162,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its holdings in F5 by 141.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $261,353,000 after buying an additional 599,384 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 406 shares in the company, valued at $162,400. This represents a 86.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing 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 company's stock in a transaction on 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 owned 146,989 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $49,592,618.71. The trade was a 2.51% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,579 shares of company stock worth $7,437,510. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $408.66 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $411.52. The firm has a market cap of $23.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.52, a PEG ratio of 9.33 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $336.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $290.88.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $783.82 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. The business's revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $355.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $379.89.

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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