Shell Asset Management Co. Decreases Stock Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Shell Asset Management Co. cut its stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) by 68.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,470 shares of the network technology company’s stock after selling 13,852 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in F5 were worth $2,091,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in F5 by 0.6% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 7,386 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,387,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in F5 by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,002 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in F5 by 13.7% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 414 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $122,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of F5 by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 1,414 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $457,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

F5 News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research raised several near‑term and multi‑year EPS forecasts for F5 (including FY2026–FY2028 and certain quarterly tweaks), which supports upside to consensus earnings expectations and helped sentiment. Zacks estimates summary
• Positive Sentiment: Institutional buying reported in Q4 (notable positions added by Northwestern Mutual, Norges Bank, Deutsche Bank and UBS) signals strong fund conviction and may underpin the share price. Institutional ownership details
• Positive Sentiment: F5’s January quarter earlier this year beat EPS and revenue estimates and management set FY26 guidance above some expectations — a fundamental driver supporting the recent rally. Quarterly results and guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: Short‑interest reporting for mid‑February shows anomalous zero values in some feeds (likely a reporting glitch); treat the strange numbers cautiously and rely on the January short‑interest snapshot instead.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have filed or are soliciting lead‑plaintiff claims in a securities class action alleging F5 misled investors about security issues in its BIG‑IP products (claims reference an alleged long‑term undetected intrusion). The Feb. 17 lead‑plaintiff deadline is driving a cluster of notices and heightening litigation risk and reputational uncertainty. Hagens Berman filing GlobeNewswire notice
• Negative Sentiment: Clustered insider selling disclosed Feb. 10 (including sales by the CTO and multiple EVPs) can spook investors even if sales are for diversification/liquidity — review the Form 4s for context. SEC Form 4

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FFIV shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Weiss Ratings cut F5 from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of F5 from $336.00 to $296.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 target price (up from $295.00) on shares of F5 in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Five equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $309.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other F5 news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.11, for a total transaction of $310,376.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,610 shares in the company, valued at $2,041,517.10. This trade represents a 13.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.99, for a total transaction of $308,087.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 150,323 shares in the company, valued at $35,625,047.77. The trade was a 0.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 20,301 shares of company stock valued at $5,204,053 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FFIV opened at $273.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a PE ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.76 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $266.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $285.07. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $223.76 and a one year high of $346.00.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The network technology company reported $4.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.63 by $0.82. The company had revenue of $822.47 million for 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $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. As a group, equities research analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 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.