F5, Inc. $FFIV Stake Cut by Optimize Financial Inc

Key Points

• Optimize Financial Inc has reduced its holdings in F5, Inc. by 23.5% in the first quarter, now owning 6,620 shares valued at approximately $1.76 million.
• Several hedge funds showed significant activity with F5, including Empowered Funds LLC, which increased its holdings by over 4,800%, now owning 54,673 shares valued at $14.56 million.
• F5 reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $4.16, surpassing analyst expectations of $3.49, while also achieving a revenue of $780.37 million, up 12.2% year-over-year.

Optimize Financial Inc reduced its holdings in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 23.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,620 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 2,028 shares during the period. F5 comprises about 0.7% of Optimize Financial Inc's holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Optimize Financial Inc's holdings in F5 were worth $1,763,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter worth about $30,074,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 4,816.6% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 54,673 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $14,558,000 after acquiring an additional 53,561 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at about $408,000. MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at about $333,000. Finally, United Services Automobile Association acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the 1st quarter valued at about $320,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research started coverage on F5 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Price Performance

Shares of F5 stock opened at $320.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $18.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.08. The stock's 50-day moving average is $308.65 and its 200-day moving average is $286.93. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $197.34 and a one year high of $334.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.67. F5 had a return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%.The company had revenue of $780.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.36 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.240-15.380 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 3.870-3.990 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other F5 news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total value of $400,582.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,153 shares in the company, valued at $33,942,545.42. This represents a 1.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total value of $417,206.31. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,411,101.27. This trade represents a 6.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,744 shares of company stock worth $3,347,605 over the last ninety days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

F5 Profile

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.

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