Legal & General Group Plc Invests $205.45 Million in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc acquired 493,925 F5 shares worth approximately $205.45 million, giving it a 0.87% stake. Institutional investors collectively own 90.66% of F5.
• F5 exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $4.73 in EPS versus the $4.00 consensus and $865.08 million in revenue, up 10.9% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed: F5 has an average “Hold” rating and a $416.62 price target, while insiders sold 15,699 shares worth $6.32 million during the quarter.

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 493,925 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $205,453,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.87% of F5 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in F5 by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,878,023,000 after purchasing an additional 114,533 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,611,637,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of F5 by 1.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in F5 by 68.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $702,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,291 shares during the period. Finally, Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter valued at about $579,699,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Price Performance

FFIV stock opened at $399.59 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average of $403.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $350.72. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $435.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. F5 had a return on equity of 21.54% and a net margin of 21.95%.The business had revenue of $865.08 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $834.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.16 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. Equities analysts expect that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of F5 from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $416.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John Anthony Maddison sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $405.85, for a total value of $405,850.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $549,115.05. This trade represents a 42.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total transaction of $1,559,848.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $60,624,143.16. The trade was a 2.51% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,699 shares of company stock worth $6,316,411. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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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