ING Groep NV Buys Shares of 5,155 F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• ING Groep NV opened a new position in F5 during the fourth quarter, buying 5,155 shares valued at about $1.316 million.
• F5 reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.90 beating estimates and revenue rising 11% year over year to $811.7 million.
• Analysts have turned more constructive on the stock, with several firms raising price targets and the average target price now at $382.67, though the overall consensus remains “Hold.”

ING Groep NV acquired a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 5,155 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $1,316,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of F5 by 109.8% in the fourth 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 in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the third quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Torren Management LLC bought a new position in shares of F5 in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

F5 Stock Down 0.2%

FFIV stock opened at $395.23 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a twelve month low of $223.76 and a twelve month high of $411.52. The company has a market cap of $22.30 billion, a PE ratio of 32.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.12 and a beta of 1.04. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $342.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $294.44.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on F5 from $355.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Six 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $382.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In related news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total transaction of $1,276,346.37. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares of the company's stock, valued at $49,592,618.71. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a 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, CFO Edward Cooper Werner sold 2,500 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $162,400. This trade represents a 86.03% 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. Insiders sold 21,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,437,510 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

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.

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