Norges Bank Takes Position in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 805,870 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,706,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in F5 by 166.5% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 62,906 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $16,750,000 after buying an additional 39,305 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in F5 by 1,281.4% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $257,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 38.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 298,297 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $79,428,000 after buying an additional 82,835 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth bought a new position in F5 in the first quarter worth about $257,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in F5 by 288.1% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 163 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at F5

In other news, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 6,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.19, for a total transaction of $2,171,178.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,832 shares in the company, valued at $7,295,158.08. This represents a 22.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.33, for a total transaction of $1,006,636.59. Following the sale, the chief technology officer owned 12,194 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,930,492.02. The trade was a 20.39% 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 have sold 19,767 shares of company stock valued at $6,628,120. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFIV opened at $409.13 on Wednesday. F5, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $223.76 and a fifty-two week high of $410.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $329.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $287.29. The company has a market capitalization of $23.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.56, a P/E/G ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 1.04.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.43. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business had revenue of $811.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $783.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. F5 has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.910-4.030 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 16.250-16.550 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FFIV shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of F5 from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of F5 from $292.00 to $386.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $379.89.

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.