Russell Investments Group Ltd. Increases Stock Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Russell Investments raised its stake in F5 by 29.2% in Q3 to 166,357 shares, representing about $53.7 million of the company.
• Significant insider selling occurred last quarter—insiders sold 23,501 shares worth ~$6.42 million, including EVP Thomas D. Fountain and director Michael L. Dreyer, who reduced their holdings by roughly 29% and 70% respectively.
• F5 beat expectations with Q results of $4.45 EPS (vs. $3.63 est.) and $822.5M revenue (vs. $756M est.), set FY26 guidance of 15.65–16.05 EPS, but analyst sentiment is mixed (consensus "Hold", average target ~$309.89).

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 29.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 166,357 shares of the network technology company's stock after buying an additional 37,624 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.29% of F5 worth $53,737,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in F5 during the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of F5 by 288.1% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 2nd quarter worth about $45,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in F5 during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its position in F5 by 2,128.6% during the 3rd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 156 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 3,343 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.87, for a total transaction of $875,431.41. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $2,110,672.20. This trade represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael L. Dreyer sold 3,067 shares of F5 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 sale, the director directly owned 1,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $369,674.69. The trade was a 70.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,501 shares of company stock valued at $6,415,370. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of F5 from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings downgraded F5 from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $309.89.

F5 Stock Up 0.3%

FFIV opened at $286.14 on Wednesday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $273.21 and its 200-day moving average is $280.27. F5, Inc. has a 52-week low of $223.76 and a 52-week high of $346.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.67, a P/E/G ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 1.01.

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

F5 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.

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.