F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by Geode Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• Geode Capital Management reduced its F5 stake by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 56,653 shares and ending with 1,714,608 shares valued at about $437.2 million.
• Several other large institutional investors increased their positions, and institutional ownership remains very high at 90.66% of F5’s stock.
• F5 reported better-than-expected quarterly results on April 28, with EPS of $3.90 versus estimates of $3.47 and revenue up 11% year over year; analysts now have a consensus Hold rating with an average price target of $379.89.

Geode Capital Management LLC cut its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,714,608 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 56,653 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 3.02% of F5 worth $437,153,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in F5 by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,878,023,000 after buying an additional 114,533 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in F5 by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,042,716,000 after buying an additional 53,712 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in F5 by 1.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $528,209,000 after buying an additional 18,806 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,162,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG boosted its stake in F5 by 141.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $261,353,000 after buying an additional 599,384 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other F5 news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 1,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $525,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 2,906 shares in the company, valued at $1,017,100. The trade was a 34.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 6,200 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.19, for a total value of $2,171,178.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,832 shares in the company, valued at $7,295,158.08. This represents a 22.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,491 shares of company stock valued at $7,966,227. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $383.45 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $223.76 and a 52 week high of $399.59. The company has a market capitalization of $21.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.46, a P/E/G ratio of 8.82 and a beta of 1.04. The stock's fifty day moving average is $327.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $286.18.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a return on equity of 21.50% and a net margin of 21.96%.The company had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $783.82 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America boosted their price objective on F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings raised F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $379.89.

F5 Company Profile

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.

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