Ethic Inc. Acquires 3,838 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. has increased its stake in F5, Inc. by 64.3%, owning 9,803 shares valued at approximately $2.63 million following the acquisition of 3,838 additional shares in the first quarter.
• F5 announced a strong earnings report with earnings per share of $4.16 for the last quarter, significantly exceeding analysts' expectations of $3.49, and a year-over-year revenue increase of 12.2%.
• After recent adjustments, Wall Street analysts have set the average price target for F5 stock at $309.89, with various firms giving ratings ranging from "sell" to "buy".

Ethic Inc. grew its stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 64.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,803 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,838 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in F5 were worth $2,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Private Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at $469,000. Vestcor Inc boosted its holdings in F5 by 689.3% in the first quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 7,364 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,961,000 after acquiring an additional 6,431 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in F5 by 275.0% in 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. Norden Group LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at $234,000. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the first quarter valued at $240,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total value of $440,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,013 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,471,465.89. The trade was a 23.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total value of $400,582.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,942,545.42. This represents a 1.17% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,544 shares of company stock worth $3,862,333 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of F5 from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV traded up $2.4390 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $316.6690. The company had a trading volume of 169,680 shares, compared to its average volume of 541,533. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $302.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $286.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $197.09 and a 52-week high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.67. The firm had revenue of $780.37 million during 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%.F5's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $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. Research analysts anticipate 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.