Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Takes Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group initiated a new position in F5, buying 15,214 shares (~$4.92M) in Q3, while large institutions such as Norges Bank and Victory Capital also added sizable stakes — institutional investors now own about 90.66% of the stock.
• F5 posted an earnings beat (EPS $4.45 vs. $3.63 est.) and revenue of $822.5M, provided Q2 and FY2026 guidance, but analysts are mixed with a consensus "Hold" rating and an average price target of $309.89 (JPMorgan upgraded to overweight with a $345 target).
• Insider activity shows net selling: the CEO and a director sold shares and insiders disposed of 23,501 shares worth about $6.4M in the last quarter, leaving insiders with just 0.48% ownership.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 15,214 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $4,917,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in F5 during the second quarter valued at about $207,492,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of F5 by 422.7% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 347,125 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $112,187,000 after buying an additional 280,719 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of F5 by 217.7% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 229,591 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $74,142,000 after buying an additional 157,318 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 503.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 163,525 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $52,850,000 after buying an additional 136,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 51.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 310,368 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $100,308,000 after buying an additional 105,738 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of F5 from $267.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of F5 from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $345.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $325.00 price objective (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

Insider Activity at F5

In other news, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 3,067 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.41, for a total value of $866,151.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at $369,674.69. This trade represents a 70.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,755 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.53, for a total value of $1,064,655.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 150,323 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $42,621,080.19. The trade was a 2.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 23,501 shares of company stock worth $6,415,370 in the last quarter. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Trading Down 0.3%

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $285.33 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $272.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $280.49. The stock has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.60, a P/E/G ratio of 8.11 and a beta of 1.01. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.82. F5 had a net margin of 22.45% and a return on equity of 22.08%. The firm had revenue of $822.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $755.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.84 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 3.340-3.460 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 15.650-16.050 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

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.