Groupe la Francaise Lowers Holdings in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Groupe la Francaise reduced its position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 4.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,990 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 1,442 shares during the quarter. Groupe la Francaise owned about 0.06% of F5 worth $10,124,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of F5 by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,357,293 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,878,023,000 after acquiring an additional 114,533 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in F5 by 1.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,226,326 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,716,000 after purchasing an additional 53,712 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in F5 by 68.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $702,897,000 after purchasing an additional 1,119,291 shares during the period. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $579,699,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in F5 by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,537,680 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $392,508,000 after purchasing an additional 106,616 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore upgraded F5 from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $475.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 target price (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a report on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $416.62.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas Dean Fountain sold 1,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.58, for a total value of $439,010.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 8,060 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,474.80. This trade represents a 14.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CTO Kunal Anand sold 3,123 shares of F5 stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total value of $1,006,636.59. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 12,194 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,930,492.02. This trade represents a 20.39% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders sold a total of 22,579 shares of company stock valued at $7,836,860 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target for F5 to $515, implying substantial upside from the current trading level and signaling confidence in the company’s earnings and growth prospects. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases F5 Price Target to $515
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley increased its F5 price target to $415, indicating a more constructive view despite the stock’s elevated valuation. Morgan Stanley Increases F5 Price Target to $415
• Positive Sentiment: A new Buy rating from an analyst adds support to the bullish case for F5 and its technology-market position. New Buy Rating for F5
• Positive Sentiment: F5 launched AI Fleet Management to accelerate BIG-IP security fixes, potentially improving customer security operations and creating additional demand for its AI-enabled offerings. F5 Launches AI Fleet Management
• Positive Sentiment: The integration of F5 AI Guardrails with NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails expands runtime protection for enterprise AI applications, strengthening F5’s positioning in the growing AI-security market. F5 Integrates AI Guardrails with NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails
• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays said F5’s stock is expected to rise, but separately maintained a Hold rating, suggesting upside may be balanced by valuation or execution risks. Barclays Says F5 Stock Price Expected to Rise Barclays Gives F5 a Hold Rating
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded F5 from Strong Buy to Hold, reflecting caution after the stock’s strong run and potentially demanding valuation. Zacks Research

F5 Trading Up 0.5%

FFIV stock opened at $388.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $401.39 and a 200-day moving average of $333.43. F5, Inc. has a 12-month low of $223.76 and a 12-month high of $435.00. The company has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.95, a PEG ratio of 4.04 and a beta of 1.03.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 27th. The network technology company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.00 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $865.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $834.60 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.54% and a net margin of 21.95%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.16 EPS. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About F5

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.