Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Invests $23.41 Million in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in F5, Inc., purchasing 87,900 shares valued at approximately $23.4 million, representing about 0.15% of the company's stock.
• F5 reported stronger-than-expected earnings, with an EPS of $4.16 for the latest quarter, exceeding analyst estimates of $3.49 and marking a 12.2% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on F5, with a consensus target price of $309.89 and several firms upgrading their price targets in recent reports.

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 87,900 shares of the network technology company's stock, valued at approximately $23,405,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned about 0.15% of F5 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its position in F5 by 23.4% in the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 43,780 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $11,657,000 after buying an additional 8,300 shares during the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its position in shares of F5 by 41.6% during the first quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 11,446 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $3,048,000 after buying an additional 3,365 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in F5 by 32.3% in the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,126 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 519 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 32.7% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 325 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, S Bank Fund Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of F5 during the first quarter valued at approximately $760,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $304.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Price Performance

F5 stock traded down $2.9250 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $312.5550. The company's stock had a trading volume of 174,908 shares, compared to its average volume of 543,991. F5, Inc. has a 1-year low of $195.06 and a 1-year high of $334.00. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $301.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $286.20. The company has a market cap of $17.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.03.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $308.14, for a total value of $400,582.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,153 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,942,545.42. This represents a 1.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Elizabeth Buse sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.53, for a total transaction of $440,295.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,465.89. This represents a 23.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 13,816 shares of company stock worth $4,227,002. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

About F5

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.