Caxton Associates LLP Buys New Stake in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Caxton Associates LLP acquired 6,141 shares of F5, Inc., valued at approximately $1.6 million, as reported in a recent filing with the SEC.
• Insider Lyra Amber Schramm sold 2,701 shares for over $855,000, while a total of 11,945 shares have been sold by insiders in the last ninety days.
• Analysts have raised price targets for F5, with Needham & Company LLC increasing theirs from $320.00 to $345.00, contributing to an average rating of "Hold" for the stock.

Caxton Associates LLP purchased a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 6,141 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,635,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in F5 by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,826 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $711,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC grew its holdings in F5 by 314.8% in the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 365 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in F5 by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 300,464 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $75,558,000 after purchasing an additional 29,453 shares during the last quarter. Ethic Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 32.5% in the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 5,965 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,500,000 after purchasing an additional 1,462 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its holdings in F5 by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 45,663 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $11,483,000 after purchasing an additional 4,671 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $309.89.

F5 Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of F5 stock traded down $12.92 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $321.67. The stock had a trading volume of 439,874 shares, compared to its average volume of 380,601. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $206.10 and a twelve month high of $337.39. The stock's 50 day moving average is $310.97 and its 200 day moving average is $287.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.08.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a net margin of 22.06% and a return on equity of 21.77%. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.64 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.36 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. 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, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's 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 in the company, valued at $33,942,545.42. This represents a 1.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total transaction of $1,706,905.28. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. The trade was a 18.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,945 shares of company stock worth $3,762,365 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

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.