Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Raises Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in F5, Inc. by 13.7% in the first quarter, acquiring an additional 19,174 shares, bringing its total to 159,106 shares valued at $42.37 million.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their holdings in F5, with notable increases of 134.1% by Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC and 275.0% by Golden State Wealth Management LLC.
• F5, Inc. recently reported earnings of $4.16 per share, surpassing estimates by $0.67, and the company provided annual guidance for FY 2025 between $15.240 and $15.380 EPS.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 13.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 159,106 shares of the network technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 19,174 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.28% of F5 worth $42,366,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 134.1% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 103 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 275.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 105 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in F5 by 31.4% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 293 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,347 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.73, for a total transaction of $417,206.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 20,699 shares in the company, valued at $6,411,101.27. The trade was a 6.11% 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. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. The trade was a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,744 shares of company stock valued at $3,347,605 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company's stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $317.74 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $18.25 billion, a PE ratio of 27.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.03. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $197.34 and a fifty-two week high of $334.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $305.19 and a 200-day moving average of $286.87.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The network technology company reported $4.16 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 21.77% and a net margin of 22.06%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.36 earnings per share. F5 has set its FY 2025 guidance at 15.240-15.380 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 3.870-3.990 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on FFIV. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on F5 from $314.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on F5 from $274.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research started coverage on F5 in a report on Monday, July 7th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on F5 from $305.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on F5 from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $309.89.

F5 Company Profile

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.

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