VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Takes Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,120 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,298,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in F5 during the fourth quarter valued at about $205,706,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 34,529 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $8,814,000 after buying an additional 19,315 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in F5 in the 1st quarter worth approximately $6,469,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in F5 in the 4th quarter worth approximately $140,460,000. Finally, Tredje AP fonden boosted its stake in F5 by 98.2% in the fourth quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 7,683 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,961,000 after buying an additional 3,807 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Nikhil Mehta sold 4,000 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $388.95, for a total transaction of $1,555,800.00. Following the sale, the director owned 7,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,739,374.85. The trade was a 36.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $412.44, for a total transaction of $1,559,848.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at $60,624,143.16. This represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,199 shares of company stock worth $4,917,061. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on FFIV. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of F5 from $380.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of F5 in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $461.00 target price (up from $423.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of F5 from $386.00 to $397.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $416.62.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of FFIV stock opened at $411.71 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $223.76 and a fifty-two week high of $435.00. The firm has a market cap of $23.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $403.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $360.44.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by $0.73. The company had revenue of $865.08 million during 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 firm’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.16 earnings per share. F5 has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.140-4.260 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 17.210-17.330 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 13.65 EPS for the current year.

About F5

F5, Inc is a technology company that provides application delivery, security and traffic-management solutions for enterprises, service providers and government organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers ensure the availability, performance and security of applications across on-premises data centers, public clouds and edge environments.

The company’s portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud Services.