Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. Purchases New Stake in F5, Inc. $FFIV

Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,271,013 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $579,699,000. F5 comprises approximately 6.6% of Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in F5 by 15,103.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,170,216 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $298,709,000 after purchasing an additional 1,162,519 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of F5 by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,753,652 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $702,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119,291 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of F5 during the 4th quarter worth $205,706,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in F5 by 175.2% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 958,947 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $244,781,000 after acquiring an additional 610,437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its stake in F5 by 141.2% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,023,869 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $261,353,000 after acquiring an additional 599,384 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at F5

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 3,783 shares of F5 stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $337.39, for a total transaction of $1,276,346.37. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 146,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,592,618.71. This trade represents a 2.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Chad Michael Whalen sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.19, for a total transaction of $2,171,178.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 20,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,295,158.08. This trade represents a 22.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,579 shares of company stock worth $7,836,860. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Price Performance

NASDAQ FFIV opened at $384.88 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $354.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $301.05. F5, Inc. has a 1 year low of $223.76 and a 1 year high of $411.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.71 billion, a PE ratio of 31.57, a P/E/G ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 1.04.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The network technology company reported $3.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $811.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $783.82 million. F5 had a net margin of 21.96% and a return on equity of 21.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.42 earnings per share. 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, research analysts anticipate that F5, Inc. will post 12.78 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of F5 from $425.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of F5 from $292.00 to $386.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of F5 from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of F5 from $356.00 to $423.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on F5 from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $382.67.

F5 Company 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.