F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group cut its F5 stake by 5.7% in the first quarter, selling 8,173 shares and ending with 136,038 shares valued at about $39.4 million.
• Several F5 executives sold shares in recent weeks, including EVP Chad Michael Whalen and Thomas Dean Fountain; insiders sold 22,579 shares worth about $7.8 million in the last quarter.
• F5 reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, while analysts now have a consensus Moderate Buy rating with an average price target of $382.67.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 5.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,038 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 8,173 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.24% of F5 worth $39,360,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 109.8% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in F5 during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. boosted its position in F5 by 963.6% during the 1st quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 117 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its stake in F5 by 113.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 124 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 6,200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 20,832 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,295,158.08. This represents a 22.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,328 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.58, for a total transaction of $439,010.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,664,474.80. This trade represents a 14.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV opened at $430.39 on Monday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $432.74. The stock's fifty day moving average is $388.51 and its 200-day moving average is $319.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.05 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $355.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of F5 from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.67.

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.

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.