Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Lowers Holdings in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reduced its stake in F5, Inc. by 32.8%, selling 4,400 shares to hold 9,000 shares valued at $2.396 million.
• F5, Inc. reported a quarterly EPS of $4.16, exceeding estimates of $3.49, along with a 12.2% year-over-year revenue growth.
• Analysts are optimistic about F5, with several firms raising their price targets, indicating a general consensus of a "Hold" rating and an average price target of $309.89.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board trimmed its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 32.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,000 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 4,400 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's holdings in F5 were worth $2,396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 in the 1st quarter worth approximately $75,000. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ grew its position in F5 by 271.9% during the first quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 69,459 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $18,495,000 after buying an additional 50,783 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its position in F5 by 9.3% during the first quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 8,831 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,351,000 after buying an additional 752 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in F5 by 4.2% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 153,155 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $40,781,000 after purchasing an additional 6,237 shares during the period. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the first quarter valued at approximately $270,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $309.89.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 2,701 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.57, for a total transaction of $855,055.57. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total transaction of $400,582.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,153 shares in the company, 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 11,945 shares of company stock worth $3,762,365. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV traded up $1.28 on Wednesday, reaching $326.69. 394,774 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 377,277. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $197.34 and a fifty-two week high of $334.00. The company's 50-day moving average price is $309.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $287.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.77 billion, a PE ratio of 28.78, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced 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 return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%.The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.36 EPS. F5's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share 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.