Systematic Financial Management LP Lowers Holdings in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Key Points

• Systematic Financial Management LP reduced its F5 stake by 19.0% in the fourth quarter, selling 3,016 shares and leaving it with 12,899 shares valued at about $3.29 million.
• F5 insiders were active sellers: EVP Thomas Dean Fountain and CEO Francois Locoh-Donou both sold shares in May under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, with insiders selling 24,491 shares worth about $7.97 million over the past 90 days.
• Analysts are mixed but improving on price targets, with F5 carrying an average Hold rating and a consensus target price of $353, while recent quarterly results beat expectations and the company raised guidance for fiscal 2026.

Systematic Financial Management LP cut its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Free Report) by 19.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,899 shares of the network technology company's stock after selling 3,016 shares during the quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP's holdings in F5 were worth $3,293,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pacific Sage Partners LLC lifted its stake in F5 by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Pacific Sage Partners LLC now owns 7,122 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,818,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 968 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $338,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 1,414 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $457,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 6,569 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,677,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,328 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.58, for a total value of $439,010.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,474.80. This trade represents a 14.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total transaction of $1,276,346.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 146,989 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $49,592,618.71. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,491 shares of company stock worth $7,966,227. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FFIV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of F5 from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of F5 from $375.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of F5 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $353.00.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $393.63 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $316.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $281.09. F5, Inc. has a 12 month low of $223.76 and a 12 month high of $395.77. The stock has a market cap of $22.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.29, a P/E/G ratio of 9.05 and a beta of 1.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $783.82 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal 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.

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