F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by Prudential PLC

Key Points

• Prudential PLC sharply reduced its F5 stake by 93.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 29,799 shares and leaving it with 1,964 shares worth about $501,000.
• Several other institutions increased their positions, including Vanguard, State Street, First Trust, Northwestern Mutual, and UBS; institutional investors and hedge funds now own 90.66% of F5.
• F5 reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $3.90 per share on revenue of $811.7 million, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus "Hold" with an average price target of $379.89.

Prudential PLC lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 93.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,964 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 29,799 shares during the period. Prudential PLC's holdings in F5 were worth $501,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in F5 by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,878,023,000 after purchasing an additional 114,533 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in F5 by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in F5 by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,634,361 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $528,209,000 after purchasing an additional 18,806 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in F5 by 15,103.5% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $298,709,000 after purchasing an additional 1,162,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its position in F5 by 141.2% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $261,353,000 after purchasing an additional 599,384 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total transaction of $1,006,636.59. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 12,194 shares in the company, valued at $3,930,492.02. This trade represents a 20.39% decrease in their position. The transaction 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, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,328 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.58, for a total value of $439,010.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,474.80. This represents a 14.15% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 21,579 shares of company stock worth $7,437,510 over the last ninety days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $425.00 price objective on shares of F5 in a report on Friday, May 29th. Evercore upgraded F5 from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $475.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings upgraded F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $379.89.

F5 Stock Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $396.19 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $340.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $293.23. The company has a market capitalization of $22.35 billion, a PE ratio of 32.50, a P/E/G ratio of 9.05 and a beta of 1.04. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $411.52.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $783.82 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.50% and a net margin of 21.96%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

F5 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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