F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Short Interest Down 23.9% in January

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,312,144 shares, a decline of 23.9% from the January 15th total of 3,037,580 shares. Approximately 4.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,438,938 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days. Based on an average trading volume of 1,438,938 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days. Approximately 4.1% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total value of $310,376.99. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,610 shares in the company, valued at $2,041,517.10. This trade represents a 13.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 3,343 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.87, for a total value of $875,431.41. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 8,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,110,672.20. This represents a 29.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 19,191 shares of company stock valued at $4,951,595 over the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On F5

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of F5 by 275.0% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. acquired a new position in shares of F5 during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 109.8% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 107 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: F5 reported a solid beat on its most recent quarter (EPS $4.45 vs. $3.63 est.; revenue $822.5M vs. $756M est.) and issued Q2 and FY 2026 EPS guidance, supporting the stock’s rally by reinforcing the company’s profitability and outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst/valuation coverage is mixed but constructive — recent articles examine whether the recent pullback creates value and review long‑ and short‑term returns, providing background for investors assessing entry points. A Look At F5 (FFIV) Valuation After Mixed Short And Long Term Share Returns
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks published updated Q2 estimates for F5, which investors often use to gauge near-term expectations and compare to company guidance. Zacks Research Estimates F5’s Q2 Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest data in the feed appears to be a data anomaly (shows zero shares and NaN change). The published figures are not actionable until validated by official exchanges; current days-to-cover metrics are effectively meaningless based on that entry.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have filed or are soliciting lead‑plaintiff interest in a securities class action (lead‑plaintiff deadline Feb. 17) alleging F5 misled investors about security of its BIG‑IP products and a long‑running undetected hack — a material legal overhang that could pressure sentiment and increase potential litigation-related costs. Hagens Berman Feb. 16 Deadline Alert

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $273.93 on Tuesday. F5 has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $346.00. The firm has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a P/E/G ratio of 7.76 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $267.25 and its 200-day moving average is $284.70.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $755.97 million. F5 had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 22.45%.F5’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.84 EPS. 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 anticipate that F5 will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FFIV. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Evercore reissued a “cautious” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Zacks Research upgraded F5 from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, F5 presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $309.89.

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.