First Trust Advisors LP Sells 1,276,665 Shares of F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• First Trust Advisors LP cut its F5 stake by 46.4% in the first quarter, selling 1,276,665 shares and leaving it with 1,476,987 shares worth about $427.3 million.
• Insider selling has also been notable, with CFO Edward Cooper Werner and Director Elizabeth Buse both selling shares recently; insiders sold 22,579 shares worth $7.84 million in the last quarter.
• F5 reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.90 and revenue of $811.7 million, and it also provided upbeat full-year and Q3 guidance.

First Trust Advisors LP trimmed its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 46.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,476,987 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 1,276,665 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 2.62% of F5 worth $427,337,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its position in F5 by 109.8% in the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its stake in shares of F5 by 963.6% during the first quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 117 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 113.8% in the first 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 period. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 406 shares in the company, valued at $162,400. This represents a 86.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $399.35, for a total value of $399,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,947 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,975,584.45. The trade was a 16.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860. Insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

F5 Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $408.74 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $398.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $327.04. The company has a market cap of $23.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.83 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $435.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $783.82 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. F5's quarterly revenue 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. As a group, research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FFIV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research raised F5 from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on F5 from $292.00 to $386.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Evercore upgraded shares of F5 from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $475.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.67.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FFIV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report).

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.

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Add As Preferred Source