Empowered Funds LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Empowered Funds LLC lowered its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 11.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,268 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 5,176 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned 0.07% of F5 worth $11,940,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FFIV. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of F5 in the 4th quarter worth $579,699,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,162,519 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in F5 by 68.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $702,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,291 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter worth about $205,706,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in F5 by 175.2% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $244,781,000 after purchasing an additional 610,437 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 Stock Down 4.1%

FFIV opened at $386.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $21.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81, a PEG ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $435.00. The company's 50-day moving average price is $401.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $332.59.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. The company had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.95% and a return on equity of 21.54%. F5's quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.16 EPS. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on FFIV. Zacks Research cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $386.00 to $397.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $461.00 price objective (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday. Five 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $408.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 12,194 shares in the company, valued at $3,930,492.02. The trade was a 20.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, 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 transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 406 shares in the company, valued at $162,400. This represents a 86.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,836,860 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Key F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 exceeded expectations in fiscal Q3, reporting adjusted EPS of $4.73 versus the $4.00 consensus and revenue of $865.1 million versus $834.6 million. Revenue increased 10.9% year over year. FFIV Beats Q3 Earnings Estimates on Systems Strength, Raises View
• Positive Sentiment: Strong systems demand, hybrid-multicloud adoption and application-security growth led management to raise its fiscal 2026 outlook. Analysts also increased estimates and price targets, including JPMorgan’s target rising to $515 with an overweight rating. Analysts Increase Forecasts on F5
• Positive Sentiment: F5 plans to acquire CalypsoAI to add advanced AI guardrails for large enterprises, strengthening its positioning in enterprise AI security. F5 to Acquire CalypsoAI

About F5

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FFIV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.