Short Interest in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Expands By 39.5%

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 2,580,000 shares, an increase of 39.5% from the September 30th total of 1,850,000 shares. Approximately 4.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 589,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days. Based on an average trading volume of 589,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days. Approximately 4.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 5,297 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.24, for a total value of $1,706,905.28. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,601,963.84. This trade represents a 18.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $320.61, for a total value of $416,793.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 107,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,482,567.33. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 9,298 shares of company stock worth $2,978,754 over the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $1,450,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in F5 by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 7,386 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,387,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in F5 by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 1,805 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $481,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in F5 by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,834 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ethic Inc. lifted its holdings in F5 by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 9,849 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $2,913,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

F5 Stock Down 1.6%

FFIV traded down $4.01 on Monday, hitting $249.04. 1,493,173 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 585,111. F5 has a twelve month low of $227.04 and a twelve month high of $346.00. The company has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.53 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $315.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $300.02.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.39 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.43. F5 had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 22.42%.The firm had revenue of $810.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $794.06 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.67 EPS. F5’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.500-15.500 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.850 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that F5 will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on FFIV. Wall Street Zen cut F5 from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on F5 from $350.00 to $315.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on F5 from $352.00 to $336.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on F5 from $320.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.56.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.