F5, Inc. $FFIV Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

Key Points

• Institutional ownership shifted: The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its F5 stake by 9.5% to 30,043 shares, while other funds—including Norges Bank and William Blair Investment Management—established or increased positions. Institutions and hedge funds own 90.66% of F5.
• F5 exceeded quarterly expectations: The company reported adjusted EPS of $4.73 versus the $4.00 consensus and revenue of $865.1 million versus $834.6 million expected. Revenue increased 10.9% year over year, and full-year 2026 earnings guidance was maintained.
• Shares and sentiment remain mixed: F5 shares opened at $412.25, near the analyst consensus target of $416.62, while ratings include five Buys, five Holds and one Sell. Insiders have sold 18,409 shares worth approximately $6.95 million over the past 90 days.

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 9.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,043 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 3,160 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 0.05% of F5 worth $8,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in F5 during the 4th quarter worth about $205,706,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 127.0% in the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 34,529 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $8,814,000 after purchasing an additional 19,315 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the first quarter worth about $6,469,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $140,460,000. Finally, Tredje AP fonden lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 98.2% during the fourth quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 7,683 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,961,000 after purchasing an additional 3,807 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at F5

In related news, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $399.35, for a total transaction of $399,350.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,947 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,975,584.45. This represents a 16.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Nikhil Ramesh Mehta sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $388.95, for a total transaction of $1,555,800.00. Following the sale, the director owned 7,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,739,374.85. This represents a 36.22% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,409 shares of company stock worth $6,951,868. Insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $412.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $402.13 and a 200 day moving average of $336.34. The stock has a market cap of $23.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $435.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.54% and a net margin of 21.95%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm 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. On average, research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 13.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FFIV has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $386.00 to $397.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $461.00 price objective (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $416.62.

More F5 News

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with earnings per share of $4.73 versus the $4.00 consensus estimate and revenue of $865.1 million versus $834.6 million expected. Revenue rose 10.9% year over year, while the company maintained fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 earnings guidance. F5 stock and earnings information
• Positive Sentiment: F5 was placed in the “Leader” tier of SecureIQLab’s 2026 Cloud WAAP CyberRisk Validation Comparative Report, supporting the company’s positioning in cloud web application and API protection. F5 SecureIQLab report
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains mixed. Piper Sandler raised its price target to $461 and retained an overweight rating, while Morgan Stanley lifted its target to $415 but maintained an equal-weight rating. The consensus rating remains “Hold,” with an average target of $416.62. F5 analyst price targets
• Negative Sentiment: Several insiders reported sales executed under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans. The transactions included sales by the CFO, CTO and multiple executive vice presidents, totaling roughly $1.30 million on August 3, in addition to a director’s previously reported $1.56 million sale. These planned sales may create a modest overhang, although they do not necessarily indicate a change in the company’s outlook.

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.

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