Candriam S.C.A. Buys Shares of 3,402 F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Candriam S.C.A. has made a new investment in F5, Inc., acquiring 3,402 shares valued at approximately $906,000 in the first quarter.
• Several other institutional investors have also increased their stakes in F5, with hedge funds now owning 90.66% of the company's stock.
• F5 recently reported quarterly earnings of $4.16 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations and reflecting a 12.2% year-over-year revenue growth.

Candriam S.C.A. acquired a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 3,402 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $906,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 134.1% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 275.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 31.4% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 32.7% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 325 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Up 0.7%

FFIV stock traded up $2.17 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $317.74. The stock had a trading volume of 249,634 shares, compared to its average volume of 572,547. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $305.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.87. The company has a market cap of $18.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $197.34 and a 52-week high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. The company had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $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. Sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total transaction of $400,582.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at $33,942,545.42. This trade represents a 1.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total transaction of $1,706,905.28. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. This trade represents a 18.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,744 shares of company stock valued at $3,347,605 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Company 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.